Christmas Part 2

I figured since it's almost February I should probably get around to our Christmas post! Part 1 was our celebrations with Monte's parents. We had a major blizzard over Christmas, but were all nice and cozy celebrating with my family at my parents' house. We left a day early to beat the blizzard, but still encountered some pretty icy roads.

We had to wake the girls up from their naps in order to make it to Christmas Eve Mass. Can you tell they just woke up?! Their little sleepy selves were not happy about being immediately forced into uncomfortable Christmas attire. The weather was bad, and we barely made it home from Mass, I'm so glad we were able to go, as the weather was REALLY bad as soon as we made it home from Mass.

Three 3 year old cousins. Such little ladies they are! I love these girls!

All the grandkids.

A new doll with hair to style from Mama and Papa.

The cousins woke up Christmas morning to find presents for them from Santa.

The stockings were hung on the fireplace . . . pokers . . .with care. ?? (Even as kids we weren't allowed to hang our stocking on the fireplace, my dad said it was a fire hazard!)

Her Santa present was a beloved baby doll that she immediately named Katie.

Me holding two babies, my sweet baby nephew and Isabella had me babysitting Katie, although she didn't ever leave Katie's side for too long that weekend.

This is where the girls spent the majority of the time. Rachel got a sled for Christmas, which they were pretending was all sorts of things. They mostly played babies in it.

Week 10 . . . and praying for the morning sickness to end!

The second trimester is approaching in just a couple weeks, YAY! Although, I think the nausea ended at about 16-17 weeks with Isabella, but hey, I can hope! I can't wait to eat real food again. My mom is coming this week, weather permitting, to help out, and she's bringing lots of homecooked food for Monte and Isabella to eat. They are going to be so glad to have homecooked food to eat! This past week, two different friends brought a meal for Monte and Isabella as well, that was such a nice surprise, and greatly appreciated. When I first found out I was pregnant I made several meals to put in the freezer, knowing I probably only had a limited time before the nausea hit, but what I made wasn't nearly enough. Next time around I think I'll go crazy with the cooking as soon as I see the two pink lines. :)

In other news, we had an ice storm here this weekend, but not as bad as predicted. My mother and father-in-law are in Jamaica for almost two weeks right now, they picked a good time to be gone! Our electricity flickered on and off quite a bit, but we never lost power for very long, thankfully. We do have a small generator that would run a space heater, so I at least feel good in knowing we would have some heat if the power did stay off. The sidewalk going into church this morning was glare ice, so Monte was carrying Isabella so she wouldn't fall, but then HE fell. I felt like I was watching it in slow motion. I don't know how he did it, but he somehow controlled his fall so that he landed on his back with Isabella on top of him, and Isabella didn't get hurt (he's fine, too). Whew.

Not quite the reaction I was hoping for

Me: Isabella, wouldn't it be really neat to have a brother or sister someday?

Isabella: Ya, or maybe I'd like a cat.







We don't plan on telling her for a while, and actually I think she will be really excited. She is absolutely obsessed with babies! I think she is going to be a big help, and it will be really good for her.

Week 9

I am thankful that I haven't felt as bad as I did while pregnant with Isabella, but it has been bad enough. With Isabella, I lost 16 pounds in the first trimester, I was absolutely miserable! I've lost a few pounds so far, and that's okay with me since it's right after the holidays. :) I am SO thankful for this little baby and would go through anything for him or her, but if there is anything I can do to feel a little better right now, that would be great. So . . . please weigh in in the comments if you have any experience with anything that has helped you through morning (all day) sickness (thanks to Anne for already weighing in in the last post). So far what has helped me the most is sipping on ice cold lemon water ALL day long. I have also been wearing sea bands on my wrists, I don't know that they help all that much. Chewing gum helps for a little while, someone mentioned sucking on sour hard candy, but that definitely makes it worse for me. My doctor mentioned he could give me some meds for the nausea, and after not being able to move off the couch all weekend I was ready to call him first thing Monday morning. But then I had a good day yesterday, I even cleaned the whole house and did 5 loads of laundry. I think it had been about 3 weeks since I had even been able to clean. I'm leaning toward not putting any medication in my body right now, but I do know people who have had to take the meds, and they had healthy babies. So . . . weigh in on the meds, too, if you have any experience with that.

And most of all, thank you SO much for all of your prayers and well wishes that you left in the last post!

For this child I prayed . . .

For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him.

1 Samuel 1:27

Now you know the REAL reason I haven't been posting very much, morning sickness is in full force around here. I am thankful at the end of each day that I'm one day closer to the second trimester! But even more, we are thankful beyond words that God has given us another precious life, a life we really have been praying for for quite some time.

Due in August.

Reading

I admit, I'm very bad about reading to Isabella during the summer, but in the winter it's one of the things that keeps us sane when we are cooped up inside for days! The other morning we sat, and read for two hours straight, it makes the time fly! I've also noticed that the more I read to her, the more apt she is to go off and "read" on her own. She has lots of books memorized, and loves to read them to Monte and I. This looks staged, but it's not. :) Monte was reading the other day, and she asked me to bring a basket of books out so she could read, too.

Christmas Part 1

We celebrated with Monte's parents the weekend before Christmas. Isabella saw Santa for the first time in her life, and I'm pretty sure she was the only one there that cried! She was trying so hard not to cry, but just couldn't help herself. She did come around, though, after a while and was much more brave (brave for her, anyway). I think this picture is funny, Grandma is pushing her up to see Santa, notice Isabella's body language.

Isabella got several accessories to go with her babies - a bunting, diapers, burp cloths, bibs, diaper bag, etc.

She loves her new Tag reading system, and I think it's my favorite present she's ever gotten! It is so neat!

Back to Blogging

We got a new laptop, actually it's a friend's old one, that he practically gave to us. This means we now have two, one for Monte to use for work, and one that gets to stay home with me! Who knows, maybe I'll even update my blog more now. :)