Goodbye 2008!

What a year of change. Some good and some bad. We are hoping that 2009 is much more boring. I several ways I think it will be but in others...not so much! Such as picking out a baby swing! Lance and I spent 2 hours in Babies R Us looking at swings, bouncers, strollers, car seats, ect. Do you need a bouncy seat with you have a swing that vibrates? Is it better to have the swing with the stuff above the baby's head vs just on the tray in front of them? Such decisions!! We also picked up several unisex Christmas outfits for next year. It was so exciting to be picking out things for the baby! Now if we can just get through the "big u/s" with good news then I'll feel much more relaxed over this whole pregnancy!

Happy New Year to everyone! Apparently ours is going to go out with a bang or more a leak as Lance just reported to me that our main water heater is leaking water. ~sigh~ We've been wanting to switch to a boiler system so now is as good a time as any, I guess! Well, not actually now but on Friday or next week!

Hurry up and wait.

Lance and I are sitting in the hospital...we've been here since 6:30 am today and most of yesterday afternoon and evening while Lee (my brother) is getting tests done due to his liver problems. No problems with Baby2!! Yesterday everything went really well and so far everything is good today. Lee is getting a liver biopsy right now so Lance and I are heading for the cafeteria. We actually had a great breakfast this morning! Lee is going to be sedated for the procedure so he'll be in recovery for a couple of hours. We can go sit with him once he gets back. He is usually very out of it but comfortable. I've never had anything like this done so I'm hoping that the biopsy isn't too painful. It didn't sound to bad. We will be heading home with Lee either today or tomorrow depending on the weather and how Lee feels. B'ville has already received 6 inches of snow this morning with more on the way.

We have 3 parties to attend tomorrow for New Year's Eve. 2 in B'ville and 1 in Fargo. It will be lots of fun but this pregnant girl needs some good sleep in order to even consider staying up until midnight! Then we have Lance's family coming over New Year's Day to celebrate Christmas. We'll have a full house since Lee is staying with us until Sunday but we have lots of beds and lots of couches! Then we're off to Brai.nerd friday to go to Dennis and Joanne's house for the weekend. Lots of activites and travel plus we hit the road for work on Sunday for a week full of travel. YIKES... makes me tired just thinking about all of it!!

What a nice Christmas!

It was relaxed and enjoyable. Spent with my family Christmas eve and Lance's family Christmas day. It was so nice. We have one more Christmas to go with Lance's mom's side of the family on New Year's Day. I received some great gifts!! Lee and Lance gave me a Cuis.enart mixer! I have a smaller Kitc.henaid mixer but there are many times when I wished it was bigger. This thing is heavy duty!! I also received some fabulous scrapbook stuff! YAY!! Baby2 even had a present! Grandma Fahy made Baby2 some blankets. Very nice!
On Christmas Day Lance, his parents, Lee and I started working on the nursery! I've had everything picked out since Lily but we never started on it because we found out about Lily's problems. So once we got pregnant with Baby2 then I picked up paint after 12 weeks so we could get started. I took a bunch of pictures of before during and we're not to after or done yet so that will have to wait:) I also haven't uploaded the pics yet but I will soon! I turned out SO cute!! I absolutely love it!

Merry Christmas to all!

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! I hope that everyone finds their stockings filled with all sorts of fun goodies:)
We are off to my Grandma's house for church, supper and gift opening then Lance's parents are coming over tomorrow. I actually think we might start working on the nursery!! How exciting!!

I hope everyone can remember the less fortunate this holiday season and do something nice for someone whether it's giving a gift, a friendly smile or just your time. It's so important to ~give~ plus it is SO much more rewarding than receiving.

Be safe and enjoy everything your life has been blessed with!

We've got movement!

While we were in SD for work, Lance and I were talking and I absently rubbing my belly. Lance asked if I was hurting... I realized what I was doing and told him no. I concentrated on it a little bit and then realized Baby2 is doing the same thing Lily did when I first felt her around 16 wks. It's like they rub their little foot or hand up and down my insides and tickles like crazy. So I gave Baby2 a little poke but s/he didn't care. S/he kept on rubbing. Dang kid!! We've got attitude already! Shouldn't that wait until at least the teenager years?? Wishful thinking huh?!

Well, I've gotten all the Christmas baking done, presents wrapped and all is ready for Christmas! Bring on the festivities!! My brother is staying with us for a couple of weeks so I'm hoping to get some work out of him. That might be wishful thinking too! He's very artistic so I'm going to have him start on the nursery painting. We're doing 3 colors and a mural so there will be lots of work to do but it's going to be gender neutral so we only have to do it once! My MIL and AIL are going to help too so that should be fun! I'll post pictures when it happens. I bought the Low-VO paint since the nursery is right next to our bedroom. It was expensive but worth it in my opinion.

I need to get caught up on my JYC too as I'm WAY behind. I think I'll just be doing the journaling and very little scrapping in order to catch up. Maybe tomorrow!!

Oh the snow!!

We almost got stuck in SD yesterday! We had more work to do with a blizzard coming into town and Lance ~had~ to get to the cities for the Vik.ings game today so we decided to postpone the work and get out of dodge! Or rather Sioux Falls! The roads weren't too bad...there were a few places that were no visibility but not impossible. They got better and better as we continued north. It's very nice to be home even if it was spent getting L unpacked, reloaded and packed again. L went straight to the garage and went to snow blowing for a couple of hours. He's such a hard worker that I'm afraid he's going to burn out pretty soon if he doesn't slow down his schedule, be it proefssional or personal! He does pretty well on little sleep (which will come in very handy in 6 months!!) but then he crashes. I'm just waiting for the crash...I'm guessing it will happen Christmas eve and day. He'll sleep until noon and then he's good to go. What a guy!

I'm over my cold! YAY!! I'm cleaning, watching football and doing laundry. It's nice to get the house in tip top shape! L thinks I'm nesting but I told him it's too soon for that. Yet I have found myself cleaning the walls (WTH??), cleaning garbage cans and vaccuming/cleaning carpet like crazy. What do you girls think?? Is this nesting?? If it is, I'll take it as I LOVE a clean house!! I think I have spring fever too which is illegal this early in the winter in MN but I can't help it. Bring on the tulips, pastel colors, horse shows and easter!!! I'm a freak, I know:/

sniffle, cough, hack.....

Why is it that I can't seem to kick this cold? Dang pregnancy-related weaker immune system! I feel like poo! I do think it should be illegal to have a runny nose that you can't breathe out of. If it can run then there has to be some room for air to get up it.
So in Lance's defense from my last post, I'm not feeling well hence the not so nice comments about my normally wonderful hubby. Granted he did do (or not do) all those things but I shouldn't have ~attacked~ him on my blog like that. He shouldn't have left his preggo wife in a snow bank but all is well so whatever! I don't have the energy to fight with him.

I'm packing up today to go meet L in southern MN & SD for work. I'm not looking forward to it but one has to work so I must go. I'm just wrapping up some loose ends here and then I'm off. It is bitterly cold here... -10 degrees and that does not include the wind chill. Brrrrrr! I'm going to bundle up and hit the road. I must remember to pack my survival kit in case my trusty trai.lbla.zer decides to leave me on the side of the road. It's never happened (knock on wood) but just in case!!

Holy.... SNOW!

Well we have enough snow now! Actually we have enough snow for quite some time, thank you very much! The storm hit Saturday nite and by Sunday morning most of eastern ND and western MN were shut down. We had a 3 foot drift in our front walk way and a 2 foot drift in the driveway...not too bad. By Sunday evening, there was a 6 ft drift on our sidewalk to our front door and a 4 ft drift in the driveway. Now keep in mind that wonderful husband of mine who was suppose to be home decided he couldn't afford to get snowed in so he left early Sunday morning (4 am) to get to IA for work. Nice:/ Not only was the snowblower still in the horse trailer but there was no gas either. Plus a pregnant wife. Not cool! I was PISSED! Not only did he leave me high and dry or should I say stuck in a drift but he didn't really seem to care. He's like "you don't have anywhere to go". Um thanks a lot. Now we do have 2 4-wheel drive vehicles in our garage/driveway but the drifts were so high that there was NO way I could bust through them. Lance did call one of his buddies to come snowblow me out but he wasn't coming until noon because he works in B'ville so he was at work. Mike was willing to come help me on his lunch break! What a guy! So I bundle up, get the snowblower out of the trailer, luckily it has a little gas left in it. Spend 15 minutes trying to start the dumb thing then I'm rolling. Not only did I snowblow most of our driveway (no thanks to my husband) but I knocked down the huge drift in front of our front door and shoveled most of that away. Then I dug out some of a window well (my scraproom window) so I can get some natural light in there. Luckily our neighbor noticed it was me snowblowing and he came over to help me with the huge drift at the end of the driveway. Mike came over at noon and finished the front walkway. I'm wondering if snowblowing and shoveling is a ~no no~ for the pregnant? Lance doesn't care... he told me if I was so concerned then why didn't I wait for Mike to blow the driveway? Hello?! Mike is on his lunch break, Mr. I never think of anyone else but myself or my business! Thanks a lot for all the love and concern. Blah!

Running, Running, Running

why is it that I seem to be doing tons of things but nothing ever gets accomplished? Plus I'm always tired. Now that I am in the 2nd trimester, my energy needs to get back up there again so I can get some of my projects accomplished before Baby2 arrives. Poor Lance has been doing so much and I've been a lump. I do get things done but just not like I use to. Grrrrr.

I'm off to get my haircut today and run some errands. Lance is on his way home so that is very nice because we're suppose to be getting quite the storm this weekend. It usually storms when he's gone so I have to shovel or snowblow. Not this weekend!! YAY!!

We have a relatively boring weekend coming up so I'm really looking forward to that! Lance needs some down time to recover from his travels and catch up on some sleep so we're going to lay low this weekend! Maybe go to a movie!

mmmmm... Grape Juice!

For the last 2-3 weeks I have craved grape juice. Now I like grape juice but never like this! I'm not one to ever wake up during the middle of the night and go eat or drink something. The last couple of weeks, if I wake up I immediately think "I bet grape juice would be great right now". It's so weird!

I almost finished all my Christmas shopping yesterday. This is such a relief! I'm hoping to get all the wrapping done with today, along with shoveling the driveway since it only snows when Lance is gone. I have Chix Nite tonight so there will be a lot of laughing and drinking (not for me!). I'm sure I'll be the DD! I also need to get caught up on my JYC pages as I fell behind while participating in Ember's wedding and all the fun festivities.

There is such a great vibe going around right now with a bunch of my friends getting pregnant, having healthy babies and all sorts of merriment in the baby department! Congrats to everyone that has been blessed and many prayers to all of you for healthy pregnancies and babies!!

~~~Phew~~~

What a weekend! Ember's wedding was beautiful! Everything worked out great. Everyone looked great. It was fun! I'll post pics when I get some uploaded and receive some from others as I was less than stellar with the camera this weekend. I was so exhausted with all the activities that the camera didn't make it's usual appearance as often as normal.

The girls did manage to wedge me in my dress but I felt really puffy. Like I'm bloated all over. Even my face is really filling out....not cool! I wasn't like that at all with Lily! I'm hoping this is a phase otherwise I'm going to look like a sumo wrestler by the time June rolls around. EEK! It's all for a good cause though.

This week is full of Christmas cards, the last of the shopping, cookie making and general merriment! The Holiday Lights contest is Thursday so Lance has the house looking fabulous.

edited to include a couple of pics from Ember's wedding!

Another great d/a!!!

We were in and out of the OB in record time! I think it took a total of 15 minutes and that included my flu shot, me gaining 2 lbs (boo!), hearing Baby2's heartbeat for the first time (150 bpm) and discussing whether or not to do quad screening test. We did the quad test with Lily but only because Dr. R recommended it. He thought there was something wrong so he wanted the results. Since this is not the case this time around, we've decided to forgo that test as it's extremely inaccurate and if it did come back abnormal (even falsely so) that would be more stress than I want or my blood pressure could take. So we decided to go directly to the Level 2 u/s for our "big" u/s. There is a perinatologist that comes to Fa.rgo every other week so we're going to have him do our big u/s instead of just an u/s tech with the regular machine. This is solely for reassurance that everything is fine. Dr. R doesn't think it's needed but wants us to be able to relax and enjoy this pregnancy instead of waiting for the shit to hit the fan again. We really appreciate that! My next appt is 1-9-09 at 16.5 wks. Lance was so shocked that it's not sooner as we're use to seeing Dr. R every other week or so. I told him this is how it's done when you have a regular pregnancy! It kinda freaked him out:) I thought that was too cute!

Today is our 4th wedding anniversary! I can not believe it's already been 4 years! Time flies when you're having fun!! Marriage is SO much better than I ever thought it could or would be. I know this is partly (ok, mostly!!) because I have such an amazing hubby. He is more than I ever thought my husband would be. He's going to be such a great father too. I can't wait to see it!

My JYC prompt today was "the perfect Christmas". This is my journaling.... my page will be added once I've done it!

Our perfect Christmas…includes more days like today! Today was such a perfect day that we couldn’t ask for anything more as we’ve been so blessed. It is our 4th anniversary. We are in our beautiful home with our gorgeous Christmas tree glowing. We’re warm, safe and happy. We just heard Baby2’s heartbeat for the first time today at our 12 week doctor’s appt. We had a wonderful lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings that was on sale. I found Lily’s ornament at Hobby Lobby (50% off). It is a pair of beautiful pink angel wings. I luckily found the last one. It’s absolutely perfect; as anyone who looks at our tree will know exactly what and who the pink wings represent.
We decided to set up for a picture in front of our Christmas tree with all the animals to document our perfect Christmas. This is when everything went a rye! Uggs doesn’t like to be held but will put up with Lance so Lance is holding the brown meow. Teddy wants to look at Lance not at the camera. The fat one is just plain “out of here”. So I hit the timer on the camera, run to grab the fat one and stand next to Teddy. Well Teddy turns around to look at Lance because Uggs is howling. So I put the fat one down on the couch to reset the timer. I get that taken care of and the fat one is gone. I’m chasing the dang cat around the kitchen table all the while the camera timer is beeping. Needless to say, I get the giggles and we get a picture of Lance, Uggs and Teddy watching me chase Maui around. I finally catch the fat cat and reset the timer. I scurry to the tree and we got this picture….it’s not picture perfect but we will take it! Phew!!!

Eventhough this is my 2nd pregnancy...

this one is SO different from the 1st one, symptom wise. Is it normal to have mild cramping in the lower uterus area? It wasn't painful per se but annoying enough that I wanted to rub it to make it go away. Is this something I need to call the doctor for? I have an appt on Thursday so I'll mention it to him but do I need to worry about this? Ladies?? ...not Lee.... who is telling everyone that I'm just eating for 2 because it's the holidays. He's such a shit!

I did lay down for a couple of hours with my feet up and that totally helped so am I just lifting too much and over-doing it?? Again, no comments Lee!!!

Here is my 2nd page for my JYC album. It's not very eventful here weather-wise.... which is so surprising for December in Minnesota!

First day of Journal Your Christmas!

Here is my LO for my JYC album:

This is the u/s picture from our d/a 3 weeks ago. ~blush~ It's been hanging on the fridge since and I thought I took a picture of it but alas I didn't! We have another d/a on Thursday so I swear I'll post that u/s picture sooner.

These little beauties showed up on my doorstep last Wed (day before Thanksgiving) from my wonderful hubby! He's so good with surprises like that!! Love that about him:) They are some of the most beautiful, healthy flowers I've ever received. Love them...love him!

Today, I'm making Christmas cookies after I run to town to get groceries and do the final fitting on my bridesmaid dress. I'm still at a loss as what to wear under my dress. With the corsetted back there is always the chance that the panel will move around and show WAY more of my backside than necessary if I wear my normal undies. EEK! I tried one size larger spanx but the belly did not like them. I don't like ~regular~ undies as they never stay in the right place. Any suggestions ladies??