Gobble, Gobble

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  We enjoyed a quiet day at home.  I did go a little overboard with a Thanksgiving meal.  Michael kept telling me:  "You know there's only 3 of us, right?"  Ha!  We have plenty of leftovers!  I have to admit, I was pretty proud of this turkey:

 

 

 

 

 

I watched about 5 videos on how to properly cook a turkey!

 

Olivia's school had their annual Thanksgiving luncheon/program Tuesday.  She did so good!  It's amazing how much difference a year makes.  She basically stood there terrified last year, but this year, she was really into it:

And a video:

 

 

 

 

We were so proud of her!


Have I mentioned she is into posing?

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been in a crafty mood, lately.  Don't be surprised if your Christmas present is homemade this year!  I've mainly been working on hats, shirts, and headbands for Olivia and the baby.  I've been making them here and there since we found out she's a girl and I decided to count them:  NINE hats for this baby!  My excuse is, she's due in December:

 

 

Matching shirts for the sisters:

 



 

And a bunch of headbands!  Why, oh why didn't I put Olivia in more headbands when she was a baby?!  She likes wearing them now, so I made her some, too.

 

 

Almost ready for Paige Marie (like her name?) to make her appearance!

 

We did venture out on Black Friday around 1:00pm.  Although we found lots of good deals last year for the house, there really wasn't anything I could justify missing sleep over this year!  We stopped at Home Depot, so Daddy could look around.  Olivia and I hung out in the Christmas decorations, where she started every figure that made music, then danced:

 







 

 

Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving!

 

 



 

Not much going on here...

We had a little baby scare last week!  I went into pre-term labor last Wednesday and spent the night in the hospital.  They did get the contractions to stop with an IV and some medications.  I'm supposed to be "taking it easy" from now on.  My doctor will not stop labor after 34 weeks (which I will be on Saturday), so we're really hoping that it doesn't start again!  Here is my 8 month picture:

 

 

 

 

 

And for fun, here I am with Olivia at the same point:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hoping I get to take a 9 month picture!  

 

 

Halloween and other festivities!

Halloween was so much fun this year!  Olivia was so excited to wear her "Winter Fairy Princess" costume.  She picked it out of the Pottery Barn catalogue.  Fortunately, I found a very similar dress at the Hartstrings outlet when we were in Destin on clearance for $8.  Score!  Downtown Dayton had trick or treating on the Saturday before Halloween:

 



 

She had a good time, but kept asking, "When is the real Halloween?"  Funny girl. 

On Tuesday, she had a Royal Ball at school.  Instead of having a Halloween party, her school has an event of some kind to celebrate.  Last year was Wild West Day and this year was the Royal Ball.  She was soooo excited!  She bought a Tangled (Rapunzel) dress with Halloween money from Lilo and we found a wig and shoes at the Disney outlet.  Here she is before school:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is what she looked like when I picked her up:

 

 

Ha!  I think they had an interesting day!  Her teacher informed me that one of the kids found a baby snake in their classroom during center time.  She thought he was joking about the snake, but found it under the play kitchen.  They often prop the outside door open while they are outside and think it must have found it's way in that way.  I love hearing Olivia tell that story, it made quite an impression!

She also has ballet on Tuesday afternoon.  She asked me to make her some leg warmers after seeing some "big" girls with them.  She is so proud of these legwarmers:

 

 

 

On the "real" Halloween, we headed to Ooltewah and our friend Brad and Megan's neighborhood.  They live in a great area for trick or treating and we kind of invited ourselves!  Olivia is all about getting dressed up, especially the make up:

 

 

 

 

Brad had a trailer hooked up to his 4-wheeler to help haul the kids around, which was great!

 





 

She had a little trouble keeping up with the other kids at first.  She insisted on wearing her dress up shoes, so she couldn't walk very fast!  I finally convinced her to put on her other shoes and that helped until she missed a step at one house and fell flat on her face.  She skinned her hands and cried for about 15 minutes, but still managed to trick or treat.  She got a little extra sympathy candy!  We had a great time!  I have been planning a Halloween costume this year for quite some time.  I'm not brave enough to bare a painted belly like some pregnant women, but was pretty proud of what I made:

 

 

Not that I can take much credit!  I found the idea online, then used the freezer paper stencil method to paint it on the shirt.  It turned out better than I thought it would!  Freezer paper will iron onto a cotton shirt, so all you do is cut out the stencil, iron it down, then put a few layers of fabric paint on it.  Olivia thought it was great! 

The leaves have been so pretty, I managed to convince Olivia to take a few Fall pictures last week.  Not that it was very hard, as she is very into posing:

 



 

 





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



No news on the baby front!  I go Tuesday to re-check her growth.  She is still moving like crazy, so fingers crossed!  



Disney on Ice and a Fall Festival

Olivia, Sadie and I headed to Chattanooga for Disney on Ice last week.  Michael originally was going to go, but he had a friend in town.  So, we invited Sadie!  These 2 were beside themselves with excitement:

 

It was very crowded, but they were so good to stand close to me and hold hands:

 

 

Olivia was scared of the Beast (as in Beauty and the Beast) last year, so we talked about him and how he is pretend on the way there.  Fortunately, the show had changed some and the Beast wasn't part of it this year.  The Princess and the Frog took his place!  The expressions on their faces were great:

 

 

I remembered to bring each of them a light up wand/flashlight and they were very good about not asking for any souvenirs.  They did want a drink during intermission, but the music for the 2nd half started playing while we were waiting.  They decided to forgo the drink for the show!  Proud mommy moment, ha!

 

I think we all had a good time!

 

Later that weekend, we went to a Fall Festival at our neighbor's school.  As soon as we got there, Olivia spotted the "Princess" tent.  A group of students from a local cosmetology school were doing updo's and make-up for all the "princesses."  Of course, that was our first stop!  3 people working on Olivia equals a happy girl:

 

 

She also played a few games, rode a huge slide, and went through a petting zoo.  Pretty elaborate Fall Festival! 

 

 

I have to post this video of her going down the slide.  Her face is hard to see, but it was so funny!  She was terrified and loving it at the same time:

 



In other news, baby girl dropped 11% in growth in 2 weeks.  Soooo, Mommy is on modified bedrest and we will recheck growth in 2 weeks.  My doctor wasn't too concerned, just being cautious, because of my past history.  Fingers crossed for improvements in 2 weeks!



 



Fall Happenings

The weather has cooled considerably, which brings on my favorite season- Fall!  I think I say that about every season, but there is something special about Fall.  Olivia was beyond excited when the pumpkins and Halloween decorations started showing up in stores.  We went last week to a local apple farm and bought a few pumpkins (and apples!).  She really wanted to paint them and I found an idea on Pinterest that I wanted to try, so we set up our "work" area outside in the driveway:



She insisted on painting her pumpkin pink and purple.  Shocking, I know!  I saw on Pinterest that you can put stickers on a pumpkin, spray paint it, let it dry, then remove the stickers.  I had some spray paint, but it was for plastic.  Unfortunately, it didn't work as well!  Olivia still liked it:

She is so proud of these pumpkins:

She is also really into her Fall wardrobe.  She's picking out her clothes for school in the morning (I help a little), then demands that I take a picture.  I happily oblige:

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

She has been asking to play putt putt since we got back from Pigeon Forge.  We found an indoor putt putt in downtown Chattanooga and headed there last weekend.  Not quite as "fancy" as the putt putt in Pigeon Forge, but she was happy:

 

 

Lucky girl also got invited to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese (plus 2 more birthday parties in the next 2 weeks- her social events are keeping us busy!):

 







Things are still going well on the baby front!  She is still measuring right around the 50th percentile, which is great.  I did find out that I'm hypoglycemic, which actually made me feel better (and explained my sugar cravings!).  I had to take the glucose test Tuesday (drink a super sugary, nasty drink, wait an hour, then a finger prick to check your blood sugar).  It's actually to test for Gestational Diabetes, but I was on the other end of the spectrum.  My doctor asked if I really poured the drink down the sink, ha!  Apparently, my blood sugar was incredibly low, even after drinking the sugar drink.  That helps explain the bursts of energy followed by extreme tiredness I've been having!  Hopefully, watching my diet and eating more complex carbs will take care of that little problem. 

I have grown.  A LOT:

 

 

I seem to look bigger as the day progresses.  I don't think I'll be getting the "you don't even look pregnant" comments anymore!

 

 

For comparison, here I am with Olivia at the same time:

 











Yep, a slight difference!  Have I mentioned how much I love our DSLR camera?  Let the above picture tell you again. :) 

My tentative C-section date is December 20th.  We'll see if I make it that far!