Christmas fun!!

We had a great Christmas and it's not over yet!! We went to a Christmas Eve service at a church in town in the afternoon and after the service we came back to our place. Jeff's parents and brother came over for the evening and after we put the girls to bed we had a fondue for dinner. It was delicious!! I always seem to eat more than I should these days:( But, I guess that's what happens at Christmas time! Grandma and Grandpa gave the girls their presents that night. They got matching winter coats, which I think are just the cutest things ever!

The girls on Christmas Eve in their fancy dresses!

We gave the girls each one gift on Christmas Eve...and they were jammies!! I'm making this a yearly traditional.

On Christmas morning, my parents came over and we opened presents and had a yummy breakfast of stuffed french toast!! My parents went home around noon and Gabby had her nap and then we packed up and headed to my parents place for Christmas dinner!! We were so excited to have turkey, because we didn't get turkey at Thanksgiving this year, so it had been a while. We again ate to much, but everything was SO good! It was a little strange to not have my siblings and their families home for Christmas this year...we missed you all!!

Today, we just hung out at home for the morning and then Jeff and Meggie went to town for a bit in the afternoon, while Gabby and I napped! We went to visit Jeff's grandparents and his cousin this afternoon and then headed to Jeff's parents place for dinner and to wait for Eric and Traci to arrive! They came at dinner time and we visited for a little bit, but we left right after dinner because I wanted the girls to get a good sleep tonight. We are celebrating our Christmas with Jeff's family tomorrow!!

I got a new laptop from Jeff for Christmas this year and I'm blogging on it right now!! We actually bought it a few weeks ago, but I told him to wrap it up and I didn't want to use it until Christmas. It's so handy and fun to use! We don't normally spend much on each other at Christmas, so this was a big deal. Usually we just do stockings for each other.

We got Megan a kids digital camera this year. She loves to take pictures and always wants to use our camera. We thought this was the perfect gift for her and she loves it!! She took over 100 pictures yesterday. Although, most of them are random pictures of things around the house:) Gabby's favorite gift was the baby she got from my parents. Actually, both girls love this baby and they are learning to share!!

We had lots of snow this week and it continues. to fall even now. The girls love to go outside with daddy and help him shovel!! We haven't played out in the snow too much lately because it has been SO cold.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!

A few cute sheep!!

Last Sunday, the girls were in our church Christmas program. They were dressed as little sheep and they sang "Away in a Manger". Well, Megan sang...Gabby just stood there looking cute! Gabby was not actually supposed to be in it yet, since she is too young, but she wanted to be up on stage and no one seemed to mind!Here's Gabby running up to the stage...she is NOT shy!!!On Sunday night, Derek, Colleen and Sarah came over and brought pizza for dinner!! Here's Megs and sweet little Sarah...On Sunday night around midnight, I started getting really bad heartburn (I usually get some heartburn after eating pizza when I'm pregnant)...but, this was the worst I had ever had. I couldn't get comfortable and couldn't sleep. Around 6am I got up and felt quite sick and had diarrhea (sorry if this is too much info!!) and then a LOT of puking!! It was awful. I felt horrible all day on Monday and pretty much laid on the couch all day. I felt bad for the girls because they watched TV most of the day since I couldn't do anything:( Jeff came home from work and made dinner and then went grocery shopping with Megan. He's such a great husband!!!

I'm feeling much better now, but still not 100%. I still don't have much of an appetite...which is okay since I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and I get weighed!!

Gabby actually threw up a tiny bit yesterday morning, but totally seemed herself all day and ate like normal and everything. She is a tough girl! So far, Jeff and Megs have been fine and I hope it stays that way.

We have been cooped up in the house all week because of me being sick and I don't want to get other people sick, especially with Christmas right around the corner. Also, we have been getting tons of snow and it's SO cold outside!! The snow is really beautiful and I think we are going to have a white Christmas, which I love!!

We are just about ready for Christmas! I just have a couple more things to get and then we will be done. I also need to wrap the gifts soon. I can't believe it's only a week until Christmas...where does the time go!

Getting ready for Christmas...

Wow, I have been a bad blogger lately!! Sorry to anyone who still reads this. We are getting all ready for Christmas and I'm so excited. Megan has been such a big helper...first she helped put up all the decorations and last week she helped me decorate cookies. She had so much fun...and ate a few candies along the way:)It's almost impossible these days to get pictures of the girls together because Gabby does not sit still!!I have a cookie exchange to go to tomorrow night. My cookies are all baked and ready to go. I love getting a variety of baking from other people!! I have already been eating some of the baking because I can't resist and I think the baby likes it too:) Here are the girls fresh out of the hot tub!! They love going in with daddy on the weekends.
We have been having bible study with a group of moms at our place on Friday mornings. It has been so good and the kids love being together too. We haven't done it for a few weeks because Colleen put her back out and hasn't been able to lead:( We still get together and just chat and let the kids play. We will probably start up again in January.

Here I am at about 30 weeks prego! I have gained more than 30lbs already and I'm really feeling it. I get out of breath just walking up the stairs!! I can't believe I only have 10 weeks left...kind of scary:) I have another ultrasound tomorrow to check my amniotic fluid levels. I'm not too worried now because my doctor reassured me last week and she felt my tummy and the baby and said everything seems really good! And this little guy is VERY active...I love feeling him move!
Megan is in a little Christmas concert at church this coming Sunday. Her class is singing "Away in a Manger". We have been practicing the song all week and she's almost got it memorized. I can't wait to see her up in front of the church with the other kids! I'm sure Gabby will want to join them:)

I'm sure I am forgetting lots of things, but that's all I can think of for now!

More doctor's visits

**I am not able to post any new pictures because Jeff has been working on our computer and I can't find them:(**

Shortly after my last post, I got a phone call from my doctor's office wanting to book a follow up appointment for my ultrasound scans. I was a little confused because I was told everything was good?!?! I had an appointment booked then for a few days later and again I was worried, but trying really hard not to be. The doctor said that the baby was fine and he looks really good, but now my amniotic fluid level was low...not dangerously low, but on the low side of normal. My doctor wants me to have another ultrasound to check the levels again. It seems like with this pregnancy it has been one thing after another. I'm praying that the rest of the pregnancy goes smoothly!! I asked the doctor what you do if the levels are lower and she said I would need to rest more and drink lots of fluids. I'm really hoping she is not going to put me on bedrest, because I don't know how I would do that with 2 kids around!!

We put up our Christmas decorations last weekend and Meggie had so much fun doing it this year!! Gabby is very interested in everything and likes to pull decorations off the tree and bring them to me...crazy girl! She is talking more and more these days and her favorite word right now is NO:) So fun!!

Megan has been a bit challenging lately as she is having a lot of temper tantrums. We put her in her room and shut the door and tell her we will come back in a few minutes when she is ready to talk. The one morning she was in her room for 20 minutes!!! I went in every 5 minutes to ask her if she was done and ready to talk and she just kept screaming. She also has been waking up very early like 5:30 or 6am and so I think she is over tired and that is why she is having so many tantrums. I am NOT a fan of the early mornings:) Especially when the baby comes!!

We had Jeff's work Christmas party last Saturday night. It was such a great meal...turkey, ham, lots of salads, mashed potatoes, the works...They had some pretty nice door prizes like a 42" Plasma TV, laptop, surround sound system. But, we didn't win anything:( We were hoping to win the TV!! Derek and Colleen came over that night to babysit the girls and I think the girls had lots of fun with them and of course, Sarah!! Thank you so much guys for babysitting, we really appreciate it!!

That's all for now:)

Update

Just to update you all on the condition of our baby boy. We had our first ultrasound last Friday and the technician said she could not tell us anything. She said we would have to follow up with our doctor. I was a little discouraged by that, because I really wanted to know what was up and didn't want to worry for the whole weekend. The one thing the technician said was that if there was something wrong, it would be obvious. Well, maybe obvious to here, but I don't know how to read an ultrasound. Anyways, after the ultrasound we did feel better because she showed us the baby and to us everything looked okay. I didn't hear back from my doctor on Monday or Tuesday and I called them everyday! Finally, on Wednesday I called the ultrasound clinic and they faxed it to my doctor right then. I called my doctor about an hour later and the receptionist said that there was no change from my last ultrasound - which was at 20 weeks. She said everything was okay and I still needed to go for my next ultrasound, this Friday.

So, I went again for another ultrasound this Friday and the technician was awesome and she said everything looked really good. She showed me his heart, stomach, face, etc. She even did a 3D ultrasound and that was really neat! He weighs about 2 lbs right now.

I am so thankful and relieved that everything is okay with our baby boy! I can't believe I did all that worrying for nothing. God is so good! Thank you to all of you for your prayers. We are so blessed!!

Jeff turns 30!!!

Yesterday was Jeff's 30th birthday!!! We had a big party with lots of friends and everyone brought appies and I made desserts and we had fun just hanging out. The boys played poker for a while and the girls sat around and chatted. So, Jeff is finally as old as me now. Then today his parents had a birthday dinner for him and it was of course delicious!! And believe it or not, I totally forgot to take any pictures at his party:(Megan and Gabby had their first sleepover at my parents place last night. I was a little nervous about how they would do, but it went great!! It took a little longer for Megan to fall asleep and then she woke up at 5:30 to pee and then my mom went and slept with her for another hour. Gabby was great and slept her usual 7:30pm-7:30am. They had mac and cheese for dinner and had lots of fun playing the grandma and grandpa. I'm glad it went so well!! Thanks so much mom and dad for doing that for us...we really appreciate it.
We got bunk beds for the girls this week. Jeff put them together on Tuesday, as he had the day off! I thought we would try to put Megan on the top bunk and see how things went. I actually didn't think she would want to sleep up there yet, but she has been great!! She understands that it's her bed and soon Gabby will sleep on the bottom bunk. She has no problem getting down on the ladder, which is great if she needs to go to the bathroom!
On Friday night we had a birthday party for Jeff's grandma. There were lots of relatives and some that I had never even met before. It was great to all be together and I think it was really special for grandma to have so many people share the day with her.

Last Thursday I had a doctor's appointment to review my blood work from way back when I was exposed to 5th disease. It turns out that I was exposed to the virus and I did have it as well. So, therefore the baby was exposed and it can be dangerous to the baby. I was kind of in shock because it was 10 weeks ago that Gabby had 5th disease and I hadn't heard from the doctor and just assumed that no news was good news. My doctor said that the virus can affect the baby up to 12 weeks after the initial exposure. I was schedule for an emergency ultrasound the next day to check on the baby. They were looking for a condition called hydrops that can affect the baby's heart and cause swelling. Anyways, the news really scared me and I think I cried most of the day on Thursday. We had the ultrasound on Friday and the technician could not tell us anything...although she said if there was something serious your doctor would call that same day and I didn't hear anything. The technician said if there was a problem it would be quite obvious. She showed us the baby and the heart and everything and to us everything looked good. But, I'm still anxious to hear from my doctor. I'm feeling a bit better about things after the ultrasound, but I'm still such a worrier:( I now have more blood work to get done and another ultrasound next Friday. We just continue to pray that God will take care of our little boy and trust that he is in God's hands. Thanks to all of you who have been praying for us!

And now I'm going to read and head to bed...I hope you all have a great week!

Halloween Fun

We had a really fun Halloween this year!! On Friday afternoon, I took the girls to the mall for some trick or treating. It was SO busy and there were kids everywhere...I'm sure Jeff was glad he was still working because he would have hated the crowds. You could hardly get around people!! The girls loved it and were very excited to get all the candy. They got so much candy, especially with the 2 of them getting some and Gabby can't really have much candy...so, Jeff and I get to have lots!!
Then in the evening all the grandparents, uncle Curt and Derek, Colleen and Sarah came over for a pizza dinner. We took the girls out for trick or treating just around our cul-de-sac and again they got loads of candy. Our street only has about 10 houses on it, so the neighbours are very generous with the candy!! It was pouring rain while we went around our street, but it only took about 15 minutes. Megan and Gabby loved to be in their costumes and they looked adorable!!
One day last week, Megan was having her "quiet time" in the play room and I was on the computer. She came over to me with a handful of hair in her hand and said "mommy, I cut my hair!!!" I couldn't believe it!!! Then she showed me where and she showed me that she also cut her dolly's hair. We had a long chat about scissors and that we don't cut our own hair and I think she gets it now!! And, she's not allowed to use scissors on her own anymore:( She cut a bunch of hair around her left ear and then a large random chuck from the back of her head. I had to cut her hair a little shorter, but you can't really do anything about the short hair by her ear...we'll just have to let it grow. As I talk to more people, I'm hearing that this is not that uncommon for little girls to do. I'm just glad Gabby was napping while this happened or who knows what kind of hair cut she would have gotten:)
We have been struggling a little bit with the time change and Megan waking up too early. The last 2 mornings she has gotten up at 5am!!!! I am NOT a morning person and 5am still seems like the middle of the night to me. I try to put her back to bed and she has some major temper tantrums. I know she is not getting enough sleep (she doesn't nap anymore), but I can't make her sleep...I really don't know what to do?!?!?! If anyone has any suggestions, I would really appreciate it. I find that I am loosing my patience with her more quickly because I am tired and she is more whiny, cranky, etc...Gabby didn't seem to notice the time change at all and is still sleeping like a dream, which I am so thankful for!!!

Well, I hear Gabby waking up from her nap and I better go get her!! Have a great week.

Pumpkin patches and parties

We had a little Halloween party with some of Megan and Gabby's friends this morning and they had so much fun! The kids played, made crafts, ate cupcakes and lots of snacks! The mom's had lots of snacks too. The kids all came dressed up in their costumes and they all looked so cute. Megan was so excited to be able to wear her costume today...and can't wait for Friday.We have gone to two more pumpkin patches since my last post!! Jeff said we are going to be pumpkin patch experts:) My mom and I took the girls to a little pumpkin patch and corn maze here in town last week. Gabby would not sit still long enough to take pictures, but they loved the corn maze and ran around in there for awhile.Then last Saturday, we went with some friends to a pumpkin patch about an hour away at Davison Orchards. Mom and I went there in the summer and it was a great place. I heard that it's lots of fun to go there around halloween. We went on a tractor ride through the pumpkin patch. The kids liked to look at all the animals in the petting zoo and, of course, the playground was a big hit! They were making homemade donuts there and we could not resist them!!
On Sunday, I went out to run some errands in the afternoon by myself...and it was so nice to do things without the kids. I can't believe how fast it is to just run into a store, because with the girls it's getting them both unbuckled from their seats and carrying one and holding one hand...
Anyways, when I got home Jeff and the girls were outside playing, so we ended up raking some leaves because it was such nice weather! Megan was such a big helper and loved to put the leaves in the bag...Gabby helped too!!Last night, we went to Derek and Colleen's for dinner and to carve pumpkins! The dinner was great and the guys had fun carving pumpkins, while the mom's watched the kids. Megan wanted daddy to carve Mickey Mouse this year...he did Dora last year!! He is so creative and does such a good job.I am going to take the girls to the mall for some trick or treating on Friday afternoon and then in the evening Jeff and I will take them around our cul-de-sac. It should be fun!! The girls just looks so adorable in their costumes:) I will put pictures of them in their costumes after Friday.

Oh, and one last thing...I got a funny phone call this afternoon. I entered a contest on GlobalTV last week for a "unique eye contest". They wanted photos of unique eyes and if you were one of the top ten you won a prize for $1000 to Iris Optical. I have this neat picture of mine and my brother's eye and so I thought "what the heck" I'll send it in. And today a lady from GlobalTV called and said I was one of the top 10!!!! Now we get a shopping spree on glasses?!?!?! I think we will get some nice sunglasses. Anyways, I was pretty excited to have won a contest. Oh, and here's the winning photo...

Loving Fall...

The leaves have started to fall off the trees in our backyard now and it's really starting to feel like Fall. I can't believe that it's almost the end of October now! The girls have been having so much fun playing outside and jumping around in the leaves.Gabby is now 18 months old and we had her check up last week. She is just a little thing...23 lbs fully clothed!!! She is 25% for weight and 75% for height. So tall and skinny like her daddy!! The doctor was very impressed with how still she sat for the check up. I could not believe that this was my little, always moving, always busy Gabby sitting so nicely:)I had my check up for the baby as well. I'm never thrilled when I have to step on the scale at the doctor's office:( Our baby boy is getting very active now and I love feeling him move! I am 23 weeks pregnant now and it seems to be going by very quickly.

We had a relaxing Thanksgiving weekend. We had a dinner at Jeff's parents place on Sunday and dinner with my parents on Monday. But, sadly, we didn't have any turkey...Jeff's mom did a ham and I did chicken cordon bleu for our dinner on Monday. I guess we will have to wait until Christmas for turkey!! Speaking of Christmas, I can't believe it's only 2 months away now. My sister and her family have moved to Saskatchewan now and so they won't be coming home for Christmas this year:( We are looking forward to the rest of our families coming home!!
We took the girls to the pumpkin patch on the weekend and they loved it. We went on a hayride around the farm and then took some pictures and of course bought a pumpkin to carve! I don't know what Jeff is going to carve this year, since he did such an amazing job last year. They had a maze made of hay bales at the pumpkin patch and the kids loved getting "lost" and running around in there. Megan was a little unsure at the beginning and Gabby, who has no fear, was loving it:) Jeff and I continue to comment on how different the girls personalities are...it's so neat watching them develop into these little people.Yesterday we took the girls to the pool with some friends of ours and their little boy. The girls had a blast splashing around and playing in the water. It has been a while since we have gone to the pool. Gabby went under the water a few times and just popped right back up...she seriously has NO fear!! It's kind of scary. Then our friends came over for dinner and we had a nice visit!

Tonight, I have a meeting for the children's ministry at church. Jeff and I have volunteered to help out and teach children's church about once a month. It will be fun to see Megan in her class with all her friends!