Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in The Woodlands this year with Papa and Gramielle. Gramielle's family was there and I think Ava loved all the attention she got from everyone.

My cute girl on Thanksgiving day.

Mikey and his dad frying a turkey

And putting up Christmas lights. We kept them busy!

Gramielle and Ava taking a walk through the garden

The day after Thanksgiving we went to the ice rink to watch the ice skaters and see some of the Christmas decorations.

That evening Papa and Gramielle's friends, who own a house on Lake Woodlands, took us on their boat to see all the Christmas lights on the pretty houses. Ava loved it!

The next day we took Ava to see her first movie! We saw Puss n Boots and she did great! She was so wide eyed and quiet at the beginning, I think a little scared, but after a little bit of time and some popcorn she was loving the experience.

After the movie we went to dinner and had the chance to see all the lights along the waterway. So pretty!

Thanks to Papa and Gramielle for a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Pre-Thanksgiving Visitors

Before Thanksgiving we had the pleasure of having two sets of special visitors. First up, was Gigi, Bpop, and Hilary (Bpop's daughter if you can't tell ;). Hilary lives in Colorado and we hadn't seen her since Ava was born so we enjoyed catching up. While they were here we enjoyed playing at the house, eating out, and seeing the Christmas lights being lit downtown.

And of course there was lots of dressing up! Can you tell this is a daily thing in our house? We let a friend borrow her kitty cat costume from last year and when she returned it Ava had to put it on along with a few other accessories. She's so cute to watch as she struts around in her outfits.

The Price family, our dear friends who now live in D.C, were in town visiting family for Thanksgiving so we had them over, along with The Hailes, for some long overdue friend time. We hadn't seen the Price family since this same time last year. :( We miss them so much. Ava, Evey, and Austin were absolutely adorable playing with each other.

Most of their playing consisted of....surprise! Dressing up and playing ring around the rosy.

Ava was in heaven having another little girl in the house who liked to dress up as much as she does and "spin". The first thing she wanted to do when she woke up that next morning was put on her Minnie Mouse dress and "spin like Evey".

Even Austin got in on the costumes!

And sweet Georgia :)

The three of them also played in Gigi's handmade "princess castle" that she brought up when she came to visit.

We are so thankful for wonderful friends and a loving family. Having these loved ones in our house was the perfect start to our Thanksgiving break!

24 weeks

(I've decided this time around to take the belly shots with the same tank top and pants for better comparison. I feel like my belly has grown so much more than this picture even shows!)

I am 24 weeks along and doing well. I had another sonogram a couple of weeks ago and the hematoma went down another 12mm. It is now 30 mm long and 5mm wide. The dr. seems to think that when I see him on Dec. 17th that it should be gone or really close. :) The baby is expected to double it's weight before my next 4 week check-up. I think all the eating at Thanksgiving has helped my boy and I put on a few more pounds already! At my appt. he was weighing 1 lb. 4 0z. and according to Baby Center he is about a foot long. My belly is now starting to jump up and down with each kick and punch and last week Ava got to see and feel him kick for the first time. She thought it was so funny that he was kicking her and I. I am sure that made it more real for her.

More exciting news is our son finally has a name......Connor James Seamans.

Connor has always been a favorite of Ava and I and James is a family name (Mikey's dad and brother). I think it will suit our little guy perfectly!

This pregnancy is flying by! I can't believe I will be holding my sweet Connor in my arms in a little over 3 months! We still have to pinch ourselves that this is really happening. The nursery is underway but we are at a standstill till after the holidays. The walls are painted and I repainted a table lamp we had a pretty aqua color but that is about as much progress as we have made. We need to keep the guest bed in the room for our company over the holidays till we can move it out and start moving in Ava's crib and dresser. Here are a few inspiration photos for the nursery...

I found this same fabric and my amazing grandmother is making the bedding for me.

I have become obsessed with these curtains ever since I saw them on pinterest so I am recreating them for the nursery but a lighter khaki color for the stripes. I found a tutorial online for how to paint your own stripes on white curtains so that is our next project.

I did some searching online for lamps like this and rather than paying $100+ (really!) for one I just repainted one we already had and it looks perfect!

Another update coming after my next appointment. Maybe by then I will have some curtains to show!

Thankful Tree

To help Ava understand the meaning of Thanksgiving we created a "Thankful Tree" of all the things that we are grateful for that God has given us.

Anytime you say the word "craft" this little girl goes straight for the kitchen table. She had a lot of fun helping me make our tree. We have so much to be thankful for.

Some of the things that Ava came up with on her own were Family, Food, Jesus, and Cows. Ha! I'm not quite sure where that came from but yes we are grateful for cows and it led us to talk about all the things we get from them.

Once our tree was finished we spelled out the word Thankful from my scrabble letters to add to our display.

Not the prettiest decoration you have ever seen but what it symbolizes is what matters and I love that every time we look at it we are reminded of all the things that God has blessed our lives with.

Wordless Wednesday

:)

Halloween Fun

The few days leading up to Halloween were packed with lots of fun activities.

We had a Halloween playdate with some friends from Ava's preschool.

She was one of the few that were interested in the crafts. That's my girl!

All the kids from the playdate. I think we knew maybe 4 out of the group (the rest were friends of the hostess) but we had a great time meeting new friends.


Over the weekend we went to Calloway's to take advantage of their half price pumpkins.

And when we got home Ava painted two of them

On Halloween day Amy and Brinley invited us over for a playdate, complete with the perfect Halloween crafts and food for the kids. That Amy never ceases to amaze me with her creativity and time that she devotes to putting together all these things for the kids to enjoy.

She had pumpkins and jack 0 lanterns for the kids to make on paper plates along with a cute poem, Halloween stickers and paper, a coloring sheet that she printed off for each kid that had their name and a picture of what they were for Halloween, and pumpkin spice playdough and Halloween cookie cutters. The kids loved it!

Friend picture!

And aren't these the cutest little Tinkerbells you have ever seen?

The kids' muffin tin lunch consisted of a pumpkin chocolate chip muffin, "mummy"/pigs in a blanket, corn and carrots, a clementine pumpkin, m&m's and candy corn, and a cheese stick ghost.

Amy and Brinley came to our house early that evening for our annual pre-trick or treating photos. You can see the first two years here and here.

Best friends Tinkerbell Ava and Chef Brinley

We let the girls get a head start on trick or treating by going to a few houses on our street so we could get some pictures.

Holding hands the entire way!

I love these girls I tell ya. What are we going to do when they leave us for Abilene this summer?! Our Halloweens, along with countless other holidays and events, will not be the same without them here. These pregnancy hormones get me even more sentimental!!

Ava wanted Daddy to be Captain Feathersword from the Wiggles and he stuck to his promise. (Mommy the "Bee" did not- combo of being too cheap and too pregnant to buy a costume).

We ran out of time to carve our pumpkin over the weekend so we quickly carved it after Brinley and Amy left. Better late than never! Ava didn't want any part in touching the "yucky stuff", as she calls it, so she mostly watched.

She requested a kitty cat jack o lantern so Daddy did his best.

The picture is a little blurry but we think he did a great job!

Once it was dark we went back out for more trick or treating around the neighborhood. She was so giddy with excitement the entire time. I loved watching her!

She was a great helper passing out candy to other trick or treaters as well.

We hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!!! Ava has already told me that next year she wants to be a ballerina and she wants baby brother to be Woody from Toy Story.

20 weeks

I am 20 weeks along now and doing well. I went in last week for a sonogram and baby boy is developing as he should and measuring right at 20 weeks. Seems like we are still on track for a baby sometime around March 17th. The other wonderful news, and main purpose for the sonogram, was that the dr. measured the hematoma and it is measuring about 40% smaller than it was a month ago!! I have been waiting to hear that news for so long! I will continue to limit my activity and rest when I can in hopes of it getting even smaller. I go back again in 4 weeks for another sonogram. The dr. is optimistic that by 28 weeks it might be completely gone! Having a "normal" pregnancy again and not having to worry about the hematoma affecting this pregnancy would be such an answer to prayers.

Aside from the occasional mild cramping I have been feeling fine. Whenever I feel them I know it is time to sit or lay on the couch for awhile. I take a nap or lay down at a minimum of 2-3 hours everyday when Ava is napping. Nothing gets done around here and the house is constantly a mess but I am learning to let those things go. I am feeling baby boy move all the time now. I can mostly feel him when I am laying still. Mikey felt him for the first time last week too so that was exciting for us. Ava has started talking to my belly and saying "Hi baby brother, it's Ava" and giving him sweet little pats and kisses. We still haven't decided on a name yet but as soon as we do we will share. Ava has already picked out a name for him but we are still not 100% sold on one yet. I have been having fun planning out the nursery for our little guy and my sweet grandmother has offered to make the bedding for us. It will be beautiful and so special. I can't wait for it to all come together. I have to remind myself that I have plenty of time to get it all ready. I was so anxious with getting Ava's nursery ready and this one is no different. I already have our painters (Alli, Greg, and Mikey) scheduled to paint the nursery walls and the twin beds for Ava's room in a few weeks. :)

Thank you again to all of you who have been so supportive through this entire pregnancy. All the phone calls, emails, and texts to check in and see how I am doing, as well as and most importantly your prayers, have meant so much to me. I have been reminded through this how blessed we are to have so many wonderful people in our lives. We love you all.