Adventures in La La Land

What a week! I feel like I have so much to write about. 1. Last Saturday, we were immensely blessed by 2 different family members in the same day. One gave us a $100 gift card to Meijer, and another brought over bags and bags and bags of free groceries. Amazing. I had told Justin earlier that day, "We paid our bills this month thanks to your Christmas bonus. I don't know what we're going to do in January." Well we definitely won't have to buy groceries, so that should help a ton!! It's admittedly difficult being on the receiving end of so much charity lately. But I know that if I had the means and saw a loved one struggling, I would help in a heartbeat. Hopefully someday we'll be in the position to do so. In the meantime, we're exceedingly grateful for the way our family members are letting God use them to help us. 2. We all got nasty colds this week. Justin actually got it first, and I figured it was the same thing I just  got over, but no, it was...

Baby is the size of a honeydew this week.  How far along?  36 weeks - starting to feel like it's getting close! Total weight loss/gain : I don't even want to know. Haha. Maternity clothes? Yep - growing out of them. Sleep : Oh my word. Something has gone horribly wrong on the sleep front. I absolutely can not sleep. For the past few days I haven't been able to nap - I just lay there awake . . . very unusual for me. Then Christmas Eve I tossed and turned all night and literally don't think I slept longer than 10 minutes. I tried to nap on Christmas day, but didn't sleep one wink. So last night, I went to bed at 9:15 and figured I'd be out in no time. I got up at 11:30 to take half a dose of Unisom. It wasn't until I took the second half at 1:15 that I finally fell asleep. What on earth?!? I am insanely e xhausted, but can't sleep! I can't even begin to explain how frustrating that is. Best moment this week : Baby sister getting a Christmas pres...

1. Everyone keeps telling me the end of this pregnancy will fly by because of the holidays. They're wrong. Haha. I'm just not that busy. We hardly bought any presents. I finished buying them a while ago, and wrapped them last week. We don't have tons of parties to go to. I'm not doing a ton of baking. Sigh. I think I might go to my sister's house today and wrap her presents just so I don't have to sit at home thinking about how uncomfortable I am. Haha. 2. Lucy came down with some kind of ailment this week. It seems to be her Christmas tradition. Last year, she puked for like 2 weeks before Christmas and finished the year with diarrhea. This time it's been some kind of weird fever/gas/puking/cough thing. She was a grump all day on Tuesday and I could tell she didn't feel good. By Wednesday, she woke up with a 102* fever. She didn't want anything to eat, just wanted to drink apple juice and cuddle on the couch with me. Fortunately I had just set my ...

I really need to remember to put make-up on before these pictures . . . Baby is the size of a coconut this week.  How far along?  35 weeks (35 days 'til my due date!) Total weight loss/gain : +3 lbs in 2 weeks, +30 total. I weigh more than Justin now. That's a great feeling. Lol. Oh, and I noticed this week that I can't get my rings off. Oops.  Maternity clothes? Yep. Getting quite sick of them. Sleep : Pretty horrible. I'm to the point where I think "Why even bother going to bed? I'm just going to toss and turn in pain all night." Best moment this week : Baby sister getting her first Christmas present - an adorable  crocheted owl hat. She's so wearing it home from the hospital. Can't wait! Movement : All the time and getting ever more painful. I actually think she might have changed positions. I used to always feel her hiccups on my right side and now they're on my left. And I always felt her feet on my left side, but now they're ...

1. Here's the Advent recap for the week: Day 9: Play in the snow with Daddy . This was originally planned for later on, but the way our weather has been lately, I figured we better capitalize on the snow we got last weekend. Day 10:   Make Christmas cards. She wasn't real into this. We made a couple and then she was done. Day 11: Make snowman donuts . This one was a hit. (And I've greatly enjoyed eating these cute little guys) Day 12: Fail. We were busy this day, she never asked to do the sticker, and I wasn't well prepared, so it got skipped. Day 13: Date night with Daddy.  She was so excited to go on a date before she even knew what it was. Justin took her to Chuck E. Cheese and she had an absolute blast. (And I got all the Christmas presents wrapped!) Day 14 : Our secret one.  ;-) 2. Now that Lucy has her uppercase letters down, I decided we need to start working on lowercase. I half-heartedly searched for some kind of flashcards or puzzle I could buy b...

Baby is the size of a butternut squash this week.  How far along?  34 weeks - only 6 to go! The end is in sight!! Total weight loss/gain :Didn't weigh myself this week. Dr. appointment on Monday.  Maternity clothes?  Obviously. Sleep : Not great.  Best moment this week : Jesus' birthday party! Movement : Alll the time. I asked the doctor about her position at my appointment last week. I was right. Her feet are on my left side, butt right under my belly button, head down (and maybe her arms too? I feel a lot of punching of the bladder and cervi x - ouch!). Food cravings : Cookies, candy, donuts - the usual. Food aversions : Vegetables. ;-)  Gender : GIRL!!! Labor Signs : Nothing new. Belly Button in or out?  It's almost gone. There's just a tiny nub left. Still amazingly don't have the linea negra. I had it by this time with Lucy. Why would it be different this time? So strange. What I miss : Regular clothes. What I am looking forward to : Ch...

This year's event wasn't as elaborate as I would've liked (especially the food), but I'm really trying not to over-exert myself these days. I'm pretty sure the kids (and moms) had fun anyway. :-) Last year, we had 5 moms and 5 kids. This year, we had 7 moms and 9 kids! It was kind of a madhouse at times. Haha.  We started out with breakfast: I made French toast sticks for the kids, cinnamon rolls, and 2 egg casseroles for the moms. Sides of cheese, grapes, and cupcakes.  After we were all sufficiently stuffed, we moved on to story time. I neglected to take any pictures at this point. Basically I had all the bigger kids sit on the floor in front of me while I read the Christmas story (from the book I previously mentioned). Before I started reading, I handed each kid a piece of the fridge nativity Lucy and I had made. I told each kid to listen for their character and put him/her/it on the fridge when he/she/it came up in the story (Mary, Joseph...