29 weeks

I am now 29 weeks along. Only 11 more weeks to go! I don't have a belly picture yet because I have had little interest in posing for any pictures. I need to take one soon though so at least I have documentation. Till then, here is an update on me and little Connor.

I went to both of my Dr.'s a couple of weeks ago (high risk and regular) and I heard the best news of all after my sonogram. The hematoma is FINALLY gone!!!!!! I have been waiting 16 weeks to hear that news! God has been so faithful and I am so thankful for this incredible weight that has been lifted off my shoulders. Now I can rest easy knowing that the next time I pick up a bag of groceries or hoist Ava in her car seat that I am not doing anything to disrupt the hematoma. I am off all my restrictions but my doctors said to just ease back in to everything. I have started going to the Y to workout again (if walking the track is called a workout!) and I can hold Ava again which is the best feeling. Anytime I pick her up now she hugs my neck and says "You can hold me now!".

Baby Connor is continuing to grow healthy and strong. Boy, can he kick and punch hard already! I can definitely tell that he is a boy and getting bigger by the week. My whole belly moves around when he is doing his gymnastics. According to the sonogram two weeks ago he weighs 2 lbs. 10 oz. but I know that he has grown since then. Baby center says that babies at this stage are roughly 14.5 inches long already and I believe it! Despite the sometimes uncomfortable punches and kicks and how huge I feel I am so grateful for a growing baby boy. He will be in our arms in no time at all! Hope his daddy gets ready because my nesting instinct is about to kick in full force now that the holidays are over. I'm so anxious to get his room ready and take all our baby stuff out of the attic and have it all in place. Next project is painting the twin beds that will go in Ava's room so that we can move the crib and her dresser/changing table into the nursery.

We haven't made much progress in the nursery other than painting and hanging the curtains. I am very happy with how they turned out! (this is with no flash and just a lamp on since more than likely the overhead light will hardly ever be turned on. The stripes appear darker than they really are this way but I like more natural light)

And it looks like nothing special now but here is the lamp I painted. It will look nice on the changing table and bring out the aqua in the bedding.

Celebrating His birth

Last Thursday Amy and Brinley invited us over for another birthday party for Jesus. Everything was just as cute and fun as you would expect!

Jesus coloring sheets

Manger and baby Jesus picture made from the kids' hand and finger prints

Amy read a cute story about the real meaning behind Christmas

What's a birthday party without cake and ice cream!

The kids did a lot of playing. Ava loved Brinley's new keyboard.

And she also enjoyed being the leader of the parade that they made up

Luke, aka Spiderman, was pretending to be Santa so Ava sat on his lap

Then it was Ava's turn to play Santa

And if the party wasn't already memorable enough, Amy's tree was accidentally taken down by one of the kids and it broke. :( Good thing she was ready to get a bigger one for next year.

Corpus Christi Christmas

This past weekend we had our first of 4 Christmases with the family. We traveled 8 hours to Corpus Christi to have Christmas with my mom's side of the family. Considering we had 4 adults, 1 toddler, and 2 dogs in the car it was not too bad of a drive. Ava is a pretty good car rider and we all just gear ourselves up for a long time in the car. I'm not gonna lie though, finally being out of that car was awesome!

Ava kept herself plenty busy and there were lots of people for her to play with. I didn't bring anything for her to play with since I knew she would have more than enough things to entertain her after we opened presents. Before presents my mom found this Lite Bright in Mimi's closet and to say Ava loved it is an understatement. She played with it for about 45 minutes straight.

I took it home with me and hid it in the closet. I am thinking this will be a great thing to take out when I am feeding Connor and need Ava to be entertained.

My sweet cousin Ryan thought it would be a good idea to take Ava outside and water the plants together.

When it was time to open presents she opened them so fast and furious I had no idea what she got or who it was from.

I think Daddy likes his new A&M hoodie.

It's become tradition to give all the grandparents a calendar with pictures of Ava.

The whole family (minus me, the photographer)

Ava and all her presents

She loves her new baby doll and accessories

Later that evening we drove around to see lights, particularly this one house (now houses) that go all out with lights and decorations. The decorations are super tacky but fun none the less.

Part of the display are tons of creepy manicins dressed up as choir singers. Some even have moving heads which adds to the greatness.

The man who lives here comes out of his house every night (this is a huge Corpus attraction) and he secretly walks around with an intercom that he talks into pretending to be this Santa. You can go up to him and tell him your child's name and any other info about them that you want to give and then when they walk up to Santa he greets you by name. I don't think Ava knew what to think when he started talking to her. He clearly looks fake and I am sure it totally confused her.

Everyone had to get thier pictures in the sleigh in front of all the nice decorations. ;)

Sisters

Alli & Greg

Mom, Ava, & David

Matt & Lisa

Holding my sweet girl. Something I haven't been able to do in 4 months. (more on that in the next post)


Another family picture in front of Mimi's house

And for kicks, this is what I opened my bedroom door to find the other day. No caption needed! :)

After a disappointing trip to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa (the lines were outragious) and lots of crying in the car, we took Ava to the mall last night to sit on Santa's lap and get her picture taken.

I took these with my camera but we also have another one to frame in the house that I paid $16 for, such a rip off!

Sweet girl with her dark circles and puffy eyes from a short nap and crying in the car. She never smiles for pictures like this but I was proud of her for sitting on his lap and telling him what she wanted for Christmas. Big step for her!

Family of 3 Photos

My dear friend Vaune took some pictures of us recently for our Christmas card. She is not a professional photographer (yet!) but I think her pictures couldn't be more perfect. I am so grateful to her for taking these special pictures of our little family of 3 before we add one more. We don't have any "frame worthy"/"professional" pictures of us so it will be sweet to look back on these pictures after our family has expanded and remember the fun memories that we shared when it was just Ava. (I am already getting sentimental about saying goodbye to my life as a family of 3 but I know without a doubt that my life will be richer and my heart filled with even more love for my precious family once Connor is here with us).

These are just a few of my favorites that most of you have already seen from our Christmas cards. Once I have the rest on my computer I will put them on my Shutterfly site.

Christmas Tree and Happy Birthday Jesus Party

A few weeks ago we decorated our Christmas tree. A first of many family activities we have planned for the Christmas season. Laziness has gotten the best of me these days so I am just now getting around to posting the pictures. And aparently I have absolutely no clue how to take pretty pictures of a lit Christmas tree because they are still too dark. (any advice on camera settings would be welcome!)

We have a ghetto tree so we had to put all the branches on limb by limb and string lights on it. So.time.consuming. (I am dying for a pre-lit tree but every year I talk myself out of spending the money on one. Sometimes my cheapness becomes a fault of mine). We put the tree together before Thanksgiving so Ava had been waiting in anticipation for us to put all the ornaments on. She has been so excited for Christmas ever since we put the tree up and starting talking about all the fun things we get to do around Christmas time.

Each ornament that we unwrapped got the "oohs and ahhs" from Ava and she loved hanging them by herself. Our tree is a collection of ornaments from our childhood, ones we got as wedding gifts from our "ornament shower", yearly ornaments with name and date from Mimi, as well as special Ava ornaments. It is very eclectic and sentimental and we love it. Someday though, if and when we ever get a bigger house, I would love to have a second tree that I can decorate with a theme or color scheme.

Ava kept telling me "It looks so beautiful Mommy". She was very proud of our work.

Our dark family picture by the tree

Earlier this month we went to a Happy Birthday Jesus party at Ava's school. My mom and Bri were in town so they joined us. At the party we made an ornament for our tree...

Did some praying...

Decorated some cookies....

Sang Happy Birthday to Jesus (of course!)...

and listened to the 3 year old class sing some special Christmas songs.

It was a cute way to remind the kids of the reason why we celebrate Christmas.

Ava wanted me to take her picture by the tree the other day and this is the pose she gave me.

And then she started leaning into the tree and said "it's itchy".

I love this cute little girl of mine!