Almost There...

How far along: 38 weeks
Total weight gain: 25 pounds
Best moment this month: Finding out that Aubrie is still growing inside me. I haven't blogged about this yet...so here is the story. At our 20 week ultrasound we found out that Aubrie had a single artery umbilical cord (babies are supposed to have two). There were several complications that could go along with this condition including heart problems and genetic disorders. The doctors ruled out both of those, thank the Lord! They said she looked great and had a wonderful looking heart. The only other issues then could possibly come later on in pregnancy. They watched very closely for her to continue growing. Since she only has one artery bringing blood to her, she had the potential to stop growing, at which point they would need to watch even more closely and deliver her right away if need be. Everything was going along fine until our 32 week appointment. My tummy was measuring two weeks behind what it should have been. We had an extra ultrasound scheduled for 34 weeks, so the doctor said it would be okay to wait until then to see if she needed to be delivered early. That was such a long two weeks! It was difficult to switch my mindset from having a March baby to potentially having a January or early February baby. We prayed that if she did need to come early she would be developed enough that there wouldn't be major complications after birth. We prayed for two weeks for her development and growth! When we went in for the ultrasound they said that she was doing great! She was almost 5 pounds already, which is just about what a baby at her stage should be! Praise the Lord! She looked healthy and my doctor said it looked like she could possibly go full term. We were so excited! We have had a scare here and there with subsequent doctor visits, including a couple of non-stress tests at the hospital, but Aubrie seems to be happy and growing in there. We have another ultrasound on Monday to check her growth again, but I feel like we are definitely past the scary part that an extra early delivery would have brought about. We continue to pray for her growth and development. We know that the Lord formed her and has His hand on her at all times!
Food cravings: None...am I weird?
Gender: Still a girl...and we did have the ultrasound tech check the last time we were in. (Grant was a girl for a little while until we found out otherwise!)
What I miss: Holding Grant on my lap. We try, but it is getting harder and harder. I also miss being able to carry him around (which I never thought I would say!). He is wanting me to carry him more and more as he starts to feel the shifting with Aubrie coming. I hate it when I have to tell him no. It's sad that we are moving out of the stage where he is just easy for me to hold and carry. At least I know I will still be able to do it again once she is born...for a little bit longer :) I also miss sleeping next to my husband. At this point I sleep surrounded by four pillows. That way I am comfortable (or relatively comfortable) each way I turn. But it does put up quite a wall between us.
What I am looking forward to: I am really looking forward to seeing Grant with her. He is so sweet to her already! The other day he got out a whistle and told me he was going to blow it to tell Aubrie it is time to come out now. And more and more he comes up to my tummy and gets the sweetest expression on his face and says "Hi Aubrie" in this high voice. He is going to be such a great big brother, and I can't wait to see him see her for the first time.
Milestones: Not fitting into anything but pregnancy clothes. I have finally had to stop wearing all of my "big" clothes and go for strictly maternity clothes. I'm much smaller than I was with Grant at this stage, so all of my maternity clothes from him are huge on me. Thankfully, my wonderful friend, Carly, who just had her baby in January, loaned all of her clothes to me!

Unplugged and Needing a Haircut!

I don't know if any of you have noticed...but Grant needs a haircut! Not for lack of his parents trying though. He absolutely refuses to get his hair cut. I feel like such a failure saying that my child won't let me get his hair cut, because really...who's the mom here?! But if you could see what chaos ensues when it is time to cut hair, you might understand.
Grant's first haircuts (as a younger than 1 year old) went just fine. They got progressively worse. It's to the point that you would think that someone was trying to torture him whenever we try to cut his hair. Screaming, crying, snot running, drooling, squirming, pushing the scissors away...you get the idea (but not really if you haven't actually been there!). It is horrible! The most success that we've had since all of the problems started was when we took him to Daddy's barber. That was in June. He hasn't had a real haircut since. We decided to let it grow out a little...which ended up being A LOT! Then it got to the point where I was needing to trim it so that he could see, and that didn't go over well. We figured that the best thing to do would be to just shave it short again and let it grow for another 7 months or so.
So, a few weeks ago we took him back to Daddy's barber. We were thinking that it would go as smoothly as it had the first time. He watched Daddy get his hair cut, but when it was his turn...no way! We were pinning his arms down and holding his face. I can't tell you how much I hate this! Still, the barber could not cut his hair. I finally decided that it has to be his choice. He is obviously scared to death of getting his hair cut, and since we have probably already scarred him for life I don't want to force it anymore. It has to be his decision.
We thought we would help him out on making his decision. We told him that he cannot watch any movies/shows until he chooses to get his hair cut. Watching shows is one of his favorite things to do. We don't let him watch them all the time, but he definitely wants to! I really thought that with this motivation he would change his mind about a haircut right away. It has now been almost a month without TV...or a haircut. Oh...besides the one side that the barber did get cut amidst all the madness (see the right side?).

We have a couple of ideas for action if this continues for too much longer. But...who cares...our kid has long hair! It could be worse right? :)

Man Work

Doesn't it always seem that at the worst possible time for something to go wrong, things go wrong? It seems like Paul and I are always getting hit with things right when we really don't need it.
For example, last year we were really needing to buy a new computer. Ok...maybe not a "need", but ours was SO slow and there are things that we need to get done on the computer (like blog for instance!) that took so much longer than they needed to. So, when I was presented with the opportunity to take a two week subbing job, I jumped at the chance thinking that we could use the extra money to buy a computer! Right after I finished the two weeks...our air conditioner broke. All of the money I had just made went to buy a new one. At first I was so upset! I had thought that God brought along that subbing job so that we could afford a new computer. Come to find out, He knew best (imagine that), and He knew that we would need that money to buy an air conditioner.
So I have been noticing for a while now that every time I do laundry there is a little puddle of water on the floor. I showed Paul a few times, and he just said not to worry about it because it wasn't a lot and we couldn't really afford to do anything about it now anyway. (Our washing machine is in the garage, so it wasn't causing too much damage.) Little by little, we noticed more and more water until it was creating quite a large puddle and running through the garage. We decided that it was time to bite the bullet and do something about it. Paul spent a weekend taking it apart, watching YouTube videos, and trying to fix it. He finally told me, "I guess we need to buy a new washing machine." Our last hope was his dad. He came over, and in no time at all they had found where the leak was coming from. The next weekend Paul was able to buy the new parts (for only about $12!) and fix our washing machine! I was so thrilled, because needless to say...there haven't been any two week subbing job offers lately. The Lord is so good to us!
Well, my original intent in writing this post was to show you what was happening while Paul was fixing the washing machine. Grant has been all about Daddy lately. Paul asked him if he wanted to go do some "man work" with him in the garage. He did, of course. I had to go get some pictures of Grant and Daddy doing "man work". Grant was so excited to be helping Daddy and kept saying over and over how he was doing "man work". Here is the cute scene I found in the garage:

Let me just add to this really long post by saying how much I love my husband! How many men would just want to get the job done and wouldn't want their toddler in the way? Paul is always so patient with Grant and loves giving him opportunities to help. When he gives him those opportunities, Grant gets the chance to learn and spend time with his dad...which he LOVES! Sure it would have been faster for Paul to just do it himself, but what a special time would have been missed if he wouldn't have taken the time to teach Grant how to do "man work".
I'm not done yet :)...Since I'm bragging on my husband I need to tell you one more thing. Last weekend was his sister, Heather's, birthday. She wanted to go to lunch with her mom, mother-in-law, and me to celebrate. Her husband was working though, and that meant that she would need to bring her two year old twins along. Paul, being the wonderful man that he is, agreed to watch Grant and the twins so that the ladies could all go enjoy lunch. Daddy Daycare! Isn't he wonderful? :)

Pinterest Creation

I don't know if you have heard about Pinterest. I'm not sure how you couldn't have heard about it, but if you haven't...it is a really fun site where you can search for anything and everything. Then you can "Pin" it on your own online pinboards for your friends to see. As you are browsing other websites you can also "Pin" things you find there. I am addicted! I love to see all the wonderful ideas that creative people come up with. I find myself sitting for an hour or more (maybe two...) just pinning things that I like. Paul calls it "Idea Porn". Anyways...I pin and pin and pin, and sometimes I actually do something about what I've pinned. I've made quite a few recipes that I found on Pinterest and a few other projects. Here is one that I've made for Aubrie's room.

Since we are using Grant's old nursery for Aubrie's room it still feels like a boys room to me. So I was so excited to finally get something girlish in there. :)

Christmas, Christmas...Even though it's past

Ok...so I am finally getting to telling you all about our Christmas this year. Not that I think anyone who reads my blog was upset about not hearing about our Christmas, but I also use this blog as a way for me to chronicle our lives...and Christmas is always a big part of that! So, if you were missing our Christmas, or even if you hadn't even realized I never blogged about it, here it is... :)

Our plan this year was to stay at home and start a tradition for our kids of waking up in their own home on Christmas morning. Yeah...that didn't work out this year. Since Christmas was on the weekend, it worked out better for us to be in Florence for the entire weekend and get to spend some quality time with family there. My Aunt Judy and Uncle Bart were in town from Florida, so it was fun to get to spend an extended amount of time with them. Side story...My Uncle Bart does not have much hair anymore, and what he does have, he shaves off. Grant, on the other hand, has a ton of hair! (Have you seen the pictures of him recently?) Bart started teasing Grant about taking all of his hair. Grant really took it to heart, and has said to me many times (when we talk about getting his hair cut) that he needs to cut his hair and give it back to Bart! Anyways...just had to share. :)

On Christmas Eve we spent the afternoon and evening at Mommy's Grandma's house. It is always a fun event because everyone is there! Almost the entire extended family made it this year. It was crowded, loud, and tons of fun. We even got a special treat...my cousin, Josh proposed to his girlfriend, Amy. So sweet! I am thankful for each year that we get to celebrate this tradition with my Grandma still around. She is so loving and has done a wonderful job of raising her family to love God and each other. It makes for a beautiful time together.

Christmas morning we woke up at Poppop and Gammy's house. As usual, Auntie Addi and Auntie Kate were the first ones awake (early!) and woke everyone else up. Grant remembered right away that it was Christmas Day, and he was beyond excited to open all those presents he had been checking out under the Christmas tree. We always open stockings first though, so he had to practice patience (which is something we have been working on lately in anticipation of Baby Aubrie's arrival). When it came time to open the presents under the tree, Grant was really helpful in opening everyone's presents. He didn't care if they were for him or not, he just wanted to rip off the paper! I don't think I mentioned that he was the only little one there, so everyone was more than happy to let him open their gifts. I was so pleased with how he acted during this whole event. I was hoping that we hadn't gotten to the age where all he wants is more and more. I've seen kids open presents, throw them aside, and ask where the next one is. I'm not saying that this won't ever come from Grant, but this year I was happy that he seemed to enjoy each gift and wait (almost) patiently for his next turn. His favorite presents were the actual Toy Story characters in real size. I don't know if I've talked about his love for Toy Story, but he LOVES it and all the characters in it. (At some point I will get to blogging about his new "big boy" room with none other than Buzz and Woody as the main characters!) So he was in heaven when Gammy and Poppop got him all of his favorite buddies!

The day after Christmas we zoomed back to Medford to celebrate with Daddy's family. What could be more fun than opening a whole other round of presents under the tree? Grant had a blast playing with all of his cousins. His big cousins, Marissa, Tyler, and Brian from Salem, are some of his favorite people. He looks up to them so much and he tells me that he is going to "get bigger like Tyler and Brian". He is also having so much fun playing with the twins, Blake and Hailey. They are all finally getting to the age where they play together well. Grant gets caught between wanting to do little kid things (like watch Dora the Explorer episodes one after another) with Blake and Hailey, and doing big kid things (like chasing and big kid board games) with Tyler and Brian. He divides his time well though and has a great time whatever he's doing. The big hit for presents from Grandma and Poppin was a Diego rescue pack. Diego is another of his favorite characters, and he wore his rescue pack for about an hour or more!

Well, there you have it. Our Christmas :) We are so thankful for our families and the wonderful times we get to spend with them. The Lord has richly blessed us beyond all measure!

Memorable Christmas Moments

We had a wonderful Christmas! Of course...who doesn't? :) I guess unless your family has issues getting along, then it could be a less than enjoyable time...but anyways...ours was great! I haven't even posted about our actual Christmas celebrations, but these things have really been on my mind as we moved through the season and even now afterwards.
We really try as parents to make sure that Grant knows the true meaning of Christmas. It can sometimes be really hard when he doesn't fully comprehend the story of Jesus' birth but he does physically see all the presents and excitement around him. We read him children's stories about the birth of Christ, we try to talk about it as much as possible during the season, and we make sure that we tell him every once in a while that Christmas is about Jesus' birthday. But I don't ever really know how much he gets. I know that as time goes on, and we continue in these things, he will learn what it's really all about. This Christmas though, when he is only 2 1/2, I am so thankful for the little glimpses I got into his heart.
Last Christmas he got a small little person nativity set. When we brought it out this year with all the other decorations, he immediately set it up like this...

It thrilled my heart to see that he knew the focus was on the baby Jesus. Now I don't know for sure that all of that was in his heart, but my mommy heart was overjoyed to think that something might actually be sinking in.
We went to a live nativity this year in Jacksonville. It was very well done with multiple live scenes depicting the story of Jesus' birth. Grant went right along with us, and really seemed to be interested in each step. When we got to the stable with Mary and Joseph it was sweet to see him just standing there watching them. Another moment that made my eyes water. (Don't know if you can see Grant or not...he is on the left side.)

On Christmas Eve we were at my Grandma's house celebrating with extended family like we always do. It came time for Uncle Bart to read the Christmas story. Everyone was quiet as he began. I'm not sure at which part in the story it was, but Grant came up to me and said, "I know this story. It's about baby Jesus." Of all the moments, this gave me the most transparent view of his heart. I thank the Lord so much for that moment. Whether or not he understands the significance of baby Jesus yet, the facts are in there somewhere, and that makes me really happy.

So whether or not Grant is excited next year about presents, Santa, or Jesus. We will strive to continue to make sure that our focus as a family is not on what we get out of Christmas but on Jesus and why He came to earth. My prayer for my children is that in the years to come their knowledge of the true Christmas story will grow and grow. But not only that, that they will begin to understand the significance of Jesus coming to us as a baby and His eventual sacrifice for us on the cross.

Getting Closer...

How far along: 31 weeks (the picture is actually at about 28 weeks though)
Total weight gain: 20 pounds...but the great news is that I am 20 pounds lighter than I was with Grant at this point. Whoo-hoo!
Best moment this month: It is actually a moment that I get to savor every night. When we put Grant to bed each night he always wants to give Aubrie a hug and kiss. He has to pull up my shirt, because as he says if my shirt is down, "I not see her little hole" (my belly button). He kisses her without his binkie (directly on my belly button every time), then he gives her a "binkie kiss", and finally a hug along with a little pat. Then he says, "Nigh-night Aubrie. Love you". It melts my heart every time!
Food cravings: Still none
Gender: Sweet little girl!
What I miss: A full nights sleep. I seem to have so much more aches and pains when I sleep than when I'm awake. I wake up multiple times with really bad back pain. I have even woken up a few times with painful contractions.
What I'm looking forward to: Starting to get the nursery ready. The last few months have been full of getting Grant into his big boy room, cleaning out his old room, and getting ready for Christmas. Aubrie's room has been the staging room for all of the Christmas gifts. So, I am looking forward to really getting in there and doing some girly decorating.
Milestones: Hmmm...since the last time I did this I guess we found out that she was a girl. So that's a pretty big milestone, even though it feels like it was so long ago. Also, I finally feel like I am actually showing like a pregnant person, not just a "maybe kind of fat" person. :)