Hutch Arrives!

I will be back with different pictures and my own special version of his birth story in a day or two. For now we are happy to be home.

Little People Nativity Gone Wild!

Last year I ordered the entire Little People Nativity set that included the inn, the manger, the wise men, and the little drummer boy. The girls were very excited to unpack it and set it up. It lasted all of 30 minutes in the correct places and for the last few days strange things have been happening.

As you can see, the manger has been abandoned and Mary and Joseph are hiding behind the inn in a field. The wise men have wrecked the cart and a sheep has taken over the management of the inn while the owners sleep.


Everybody else in the town, man and beast, have gathered together to escape the pirate who has taken refuge in the loft of the drummer boy's stable.


And in a most disastrous turn of events, the wise men's caravan tents have also been overtaken by wild animals. Hippos, tigers, and golden retrievers oh my?

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas....

Well, in this house it is. We started putting up decorations last weekend in an attempt to be ready for this crazy holiday season before Hutch arrives. Little did I know, there was no rush. I finished things up a few days ago and while ours is not as fancy or beautiful as Amber's and Erica's trees, it is special in a Charlie Brown way. I have a few more things to get out including our tree skirt and countdown calendar. The tree skirt has to wait until we add the girls' (and Hutch's) hand prints and footprints. The countdown calendar cannot come out until December 1st because little hands have a very hard time not touching it. I will come back and add those pictures in later but for now this is it.

Thanksgiving Day 2009

We had a very good day and lots of good food. The girls were mostly well behaved and enjoyed watching the parade this morning. As for being thankful, how could I not be? I have two beautiful girls, a wonderful husband, and am hours, days, a week(?) away from adding our little boy. Hutch does seem quite content to hang around inside instead of venturing out into this big old world. He has decided that the past two weeks would be a good time to fake me out with sometimes consistent contractions that hurt. What's even funnier about the whole thing, is that his favorite time to do this is between 3 and 5 am. What a cut-up! Seriously though, I am getting quite tired of the contractions that go nowhere. The doctor said on Tuesday that he didn't believe I would make it through the weekend without having a baby. I am starting to think I just might. If I do make it all the way to my next appointment on Dec. 1st, we might go ahead and schedule an induction for the 3rd. We will just have to wait and see how I am doing. But back to today and the few pictures I took.

Who Needs a Trampoline?

One night last week, the girls had a blast bouncing on a big purple ball. Thank goodness I told Santa to hold off on the trampoline and bounce house. We got them covered.

cute


tag you're it!


practicing a patented Brianna dance move


happy


smiling even though Finn was trying to push her off the ball


she was going to do what?


more bouncing


even more bouncing (at this point I was cold and begging for them to come inside with me)


a little falling

Let's Talk Turkeys!

I am forever coming across cute ideas for tasty, sometimes healthy snacks that the girls can make. I saw this idea and knew it was a winner.


It was easy and used up some of their Halloween candy. So Monday afternoon we set to work. We used frosting, peanut butter cups, vanilla wafers, and candy corn.


I showed the girls how to make one and they did the rest. They were very eager to lick the frosting off their fingers and I *think* they finished the turkeys before they did that.


Their finished products. Aren't these the cutest little turkeys ever?


As a side note, you are supposed to use caramels to make them stand up but I didn't have any, so our turkeys are sleeping. If Hutch stays put for a few more days, we will do pilgrim hats. Yummy!

Update of sorts

Well here we are. Week 37. Seems little Hutch is content to hang out and only cause me grief instead of coming out to cause me grief. Everyone in the house is at defcon 5 with excitement and if he doesn't come soon Chloe might implode. She is itching to shove a paci in his mouth. Life will be so much easier if he does indeed take one. I am more prepared now as I finished my hospital bag a few nights ago. I am planning for a very boring stay as visitors are limited and no one under 12 can come at all. So, the girls will have to see him when we get home. I am a little bummed about that but I can't blame the hospital at all. If everyone used common sense then they wouldn't need the strict regulations.

We also survived a 19 day business trip for Jeremy that almost pushed me to the edge of insanity. The girls really act up after say 10 days so that last week was killer. We had lots of gray house time and I managed to escape for a few hours here and there. Grocery shopping alone takes a really really long time when it is your only break of the week.

Not much else is really going on. We had a small shower hosted by our Sunday school class yesterday. It involved a spaghetti lunch, cupcakes, and presents. Hutch will be well dressed for sure. I did not get any pictures at the shower but I hope to have some emailed to me soon and if I do I will share. I have finished most of my Christmas shopping and plan to end it with a few online orders in the next week or two. You know, while I twiddle my thumbs and over analyze every pain. I am also planning on finally catching up my photo blog, you know that 365 challenge thing I am miserably far behind on? Yeah stay tuned because I am going to be a picture posting nutcase as soon as I take them.

Whoa Nelly That's a Big Belly!

It started off so small

12 weeks


and then it grew

24 weeks


and it grew

30 weeks


and still it grew.....

36 weeks

What in the world am I going to do?

Fall Fest

For the first time, Opp held a free downtown Halloween party for the kids. It was cold and getting dark by the time we made it there so I wasn't sure how long we would hold out. There were booths set up that had a few games and were giving out candy. There were A LOT of people and not enough bounce house supervision if you get my drift. So we wandered around for a little while and then heard the announcement for the costume contest. Now I think my kids are cute and I know their costumes were, so I made up my mind that they would participate. We stood around as they handed out the official entry forms (hastily scrawled numbers on a post-it) and waited. Finley was in the 4-7 year old group and Chloe was in the 0-3 year old group. TeeTee was apparently coaching Finley on how to act during the competition. Ever seen Toddlers and Tiaras? It was like a kid's beauty pageant on speed. Now Finn loves to put on shows and had barked and growled all week when she was Spot but her behavior this night takes the cake, and the trophy too. So, the oldest group was first and it was a very laid back judging format. Everybody lined up, they picked a top 3, and then the next group went. When Finley got up there, she turned it on. She growled, she barked, and she turned around and wagged her tail.


The crowd went nuts and it only egged her on. I was laughing so hard I could barely take the pictures. Needless, to say she made it to the top 3. Then it was time for Chloe's group. Chloe did not take my coaching seriously and stood like this.

She did not make eye contact with the judges, showed very little personality, and really was above being judged. She knows she is cute. Had she done her "fooky fider" routine where she wiggles her fingers and says "Boo!", we might have two champions in the house. They announced the top 3 and Chloe didn't even place, much less win Grand Supreme. At this point all my hope was on Finn. I was so happy for her when her number was called. She received an expensive gold plated trophy and had her picture in the paper this week. Next year I am sure the competition will be even fiercer, so I need to start planning now. What should they be?

Ino Fall Festival

These are just some random shots from our trip to the Ino Fall Festival. We went there after Oppfest but before FallFest. More on FallFest later!


Trunk or Treat time! The excitement was electric!



2nd round of cotton candy for the day--how else did you think I kept the tired little feet a moving?



Tiger Woods they are not. (Although a different Halloween event Chloe did score a hole in one with a plastic putter while standing much closer to the hole.)


A very determined Chloe plays the ring toss game.




Being put into a giant bubble. Chloe kept popping her bubble.

Broken

By now all 4 of my faithful readers know about my cute clothes obsession. Well sometimes it isn't just the clothes, it is also the bows or clips. Last year, I bought these

to go with this dress
.

I ended up buying several other pieces of this line from Gym-boree called Lots- of- Dots. Finn was wearing a sweater that matched the clips so she wore two of them. Chloe decided she wanted to wear the other two so I clipped them in her hair before Oppfest. I noticed while we were there that with hoods coming up and down the clips were missing. I was sad, very very sad. I found one clip hiding in Chloe's hood and another one barely hanging on to a thin piece of Finn's hair. I was somewhat happy since I at least had those back. On the walk home, I happened to spot one laying on the sidewalk. Wooohoooo, three of four back where they belong. I took a couple of more steps and saw the last one laying in the street, broken.

Now, most sane people would have picked it up and tossed it in the next available trash can. I chose to pick it up, blog about it, and repair it. I will be gluing that bad boy back together as soon as I get some super glue and some gloves. I never use super glue without gloves after a certain incident, which really, is a blog post for another day.

Oppfest was a Bust!

We woke up Saturday morning to a cold, rainy day. That does not bode well for a morning spent at an outdoor festival. At around 11 or so, the sun started peeking out and the rain had slowed down to a drizzle. We bundled up and headed out for just a little while. I did not take any pictures while we were there because of the drizzle, but we had fun looking at the children's art contest entries and riding the ponies. On the way back home we stopped off for one of our favorite fair food treats: cotton candy. Yummy! The girls really enjoyed it on the porch of the gray house.



Chloe enjoying her blue treat!


Finley's pink sweet made her mouth look like it was "bleetin'". It was kind of fitting since it was Halloween.