cont...

Well that post probably seemed a tad anticlimactic. Somehow as my fingers hit buttons too fast, I hit the perfect combination of keys that told the computer to publish my post without my permission! Anyway, believe it or not, we did more than start preparations and listen to music :)

It finally started snowing again today, and we had beautiful huge flakes falling. Very festive and very beautiful, and refreshing after all the rain and ice!

It was a pretty relaxing morning, and then we started on our first ever turkey. It almost seemed too easy! We used a turkey bag, which ziplock makes and it made it so easy, we just shoved the bird and such in the bag, put that in a pan, and it cooked everything quickly and well. It even browned perfectly. It was so easy in fact that we thought "this can't be, let's leave it in a while longer" and it ended up being great, but we probably could have taken it out a bit before. Next time!

Everyone started coming over around 1 something. Our friend Dave, the Haussners, and my coworker Sarah and her family came to join us. It made for an extremely fun Thanksgiving, and we had so much food. Turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, corn casserole, another kind of potatoes, salad, veggies, cranberries, rolls, turnips, and 4 different kinds of pie. Delicious. After eating way too much dinner, we played some games which were lots of fun, and then somehow a neighborhood snowball fight started up. I have never seen our neighborhood look like this before, and it was really really nice, and fun for everyone. There was no difference between the kids on the street and the adults, everyone was running around throwing snowballs for over an hour. Something that has never happened around here, but now that it did tonight, I'm sure it will again! When we all came in and got dry, we played a few more games, and then everyone took off to head home. We got the kitchen cleaned up and here we are relaxing again and I'm thinking bed is in order.

So because it's Thanksgiving, and just because, I should give thanks for things in my life.

I'm thankful this year for a wonderful wedding and a wonderful husband, a healthy pregnancy, and an always exciting job to go to every day. I'm thankful for the arrival of Truett who I was instantly in love with of course, and thankful I was able to go and visit Sydney and Macy and family recently. So thankful for seeing friends in Iowa City and just having the feeling of driving around Iowa City again on a pretty fall day. I'm thankful for family and friendships and the list goes on!

I'm off to bed and hoping the turkey I ate for dinner (and just finished for snack) will help me to sleep soundly. Good night!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all! We just wrapped up our fun Thanksgiving, after a long day of activity. We got up this morning and Eric, David and I worked on some preparations and listened to music.

Photos!

So I've been asked for some photos and I said I would post some, so here they are! This first belly shot is me at 18 or 19 weeks. I can't remember, but somewhere in there. I should start keeping better track. The one in the white shirt is from today after work, at 22 weeks and some days. Now granted, it's the end of the day and no one is their smallest after a day full of snacks! But I think it has become more clear that there is more than just snacks in my belly, our little man is making a nice home in there! Definitely a noticable jump! The picture of him is from our midway ultrasound 3 weeks ago. He has always loved having his hands up on his face every time we have seen him, and he scared me by having his cord draped over his shoulder/neck. No worries, plenty of space for him to bounce around in there and not get tangled in it, but what mom likes to see the cord near the neck? So we're all happy and healthy, and Eric let me know tonight that "he's a natural" :) So I'll mention that next. Definitely worth a mention-- My wonderful husband has been SO great during this pregnancy. From the surprise of it all initially to the day to day changes, emotional ups and downs, he has been extremely caring, supportive, and is always thinking of us. We're a lucky pair to have him!

Ever changing updates!

Happy winter to all-- it sounds like it's creeping up on everyone, and it is certainly in full force up here in Alaska! Welcome dark sky, welcome snow, but no welcome to the ice storm.
That's right, we have been in the middle of an ice storm the past few days. I don't think it's as intense as a few I have seen in Iowa, but it does the trick for making every surface outside as slippery as can possibly be... not so good for the preggo trying to walk down the ice rink driveway. I learned my lesson a week ago when I went down the driveway too quickly and while trying to avoid tripping over Finn, started falling immediately. I was putting on a ridiculous display trying not to fall on my belly, or my back, or my head, or who knows how else I could have fallen at that point... After spinning my wheels for a few seconds I was able to just slide down to my knees. So close to saving it but the ice won this time. Yesterday, it was a struggle to get to work and many people (hubby included) were unable to get out. A friend and coworker of mine has a van with nice studded tires so her husband and she came to get me and we made our way to work, only to find out we were closing early. No complaints here!
I cannot believe how quickly the holidays have gotten here, but I'm very happy about it! In a way though, it sends me spinning into this unnecessary cycle of worry because Thanksgiving is here, then on to Christmas and Christmas parties, and then it's New Years, and then Kate has a baby and then it's already practically February and when we get there I'll be weeks away from having a baby... and we have done NOTHING to prepare. I realize there is time, but my point is all of these events make time pass quite quickly and pretty soon it will be hard to catch up!
I am definitely in the mode of holiday cheer, however. This weekend Eric was nice enough to humor me and so we went to Target together in search for festive decorations. He got into it pretty quickly though and we ended up going home and while I made chex mix and listened to Christmas tunes, Eric and David hung Christmas lights outside (SO excited to have those this year!) and then Eric made a wreath for our front door. He wired berries and little frosted pine cones and made a really nice looking wreath. Haussner clan came over after that and we made rolls for Thanksgiving. There's a chance I already ate my portion, but good news is we made a ton! Well I actually had nothing to do with the making, I was the taste tester. Anyway, a very festive day and it felt really nice.
Baby boy is kicking, he must know I was just about to mention him.
So on that topic, here we are at 22 weeks! Pretty amazing really, at the beginning the time went so slowly, and now I feel like it has picked up and doesn't plan to slow down. I won't complain because I'm loving all of the changes. (Well, not the ever increasing numbers on the scale, but it's all fine and normal) I have been feeling baby kicks and squirms for weeks now, and I just can never have enough. Last week for about 3 days though, I stopped feeling him as much. Maybe a few squirms here and there but really not much at all. Turns out he must have been resting through a growth spurt because during the weekend, he was more active and stronger than ever. He just barely stopped moving! Morning, day, night, none stop kicks and movements. It. Was. Wonderful.
I have been doing a lot of thinking about the nursery that has nothing in it yet, and trying to work out a plan of attack in that department. I'm finding it's just hard to get started though with so much going on. I think if we just pick out the big items, the rest will fall in place over time.
We had our second ultrasound a few weeks ago at about 19 weeks. I will post some pictures later on this evening, but everything looked great! He is most definitely a boy, and looks healthy in every way-- we are SO thankful!
His name is all picked out and he fits naturally into daily conversation, we are getting very excited to meet this one. Along with it comes all of the normal fears of becoming a new Mom however, so that stage is the one I'm currently experiencing. It's a LOT of change that we are in for, change that we are excited and ready for, but it is easy to worry about and fun to anticipate.
I hope everyone is staying warm and having a very wonderful holiday season! Happy eating! :)