31 Weeks

Today marks 31 weeks for Lizzie! As of now, she has use of all five of her senses and all fingernails, toenails, eyelashes, eyebrows and hair have grown in :) She is most likely about 15.5 inches long and around 3.5 pounds! According to my tracker, she is still the size of a head of lettuce (I guess this would be the slightly more pudgy lettuce ;-).

Thanks to everyone who prayed last week! I called my doctor to see what she wanted me to do and she had me come in immediately. She checked to see if the contractions had caused any dilation... praise God they didn't! I then got a short lecture about how if that happens again I need to go to the hospital immediately.... Ah, so it was a big deal :P As for me, I'll just be praying for no more pre-term labor... I prefer my next visit to L&D to involve the bringing home of a full term baby :)

The Jesse Tree

Some of you saw this title and knew exactly what I was talking about while others (like me last year) have NO idea what I am talking about. Well...... do you remember my advent mishap from last year? I was so frustrated by my not-so-usable advent calendar that I started looking for other options for making my own advent calendar. I found some great handmade versions online that inspired me, but then someone uttered the words that changed my direction permanently... Jesse tree.

A Jesse tree is a Catholic tradition that takes the idea of an advent calendar and infuses a large amount of bible goodness into the center of it. Starting on December 1st, each day you put a different ornament on your Jesse tree... the ornaments each represent a person from the lineage of Christ, or an old testament prophesy about Christ.... COOL! So each night we show Micah the new ornament, read the corresponding scriptures and add the ornament to our tree... by Christmas, only the manger ornament will be left to add and the tree will tell the story of Christ! By now, each night after we finish the story, Micah takes the ornament to the tree and tries to hang it himself... so cute!

The front of the ornaments with characters, verses and corresponding day in December :)

Noah's ornament~

Abraham and Jacob~

Moses :)

The tree so far!

Asher

My new nephew, Asher Martin Elkins was born yesterday morning! 7lbs, 11 oz and 20 inches long. Amy and Asher are both doing well and so far Elena and Evan are pretty pumped about their new sib!

Let it Snow!

For the two of you who read this who a) do not live in Houston b) don't know anyone else in Houston or c) didn't see this on every national newscast on Friday... It snowed in Houston!! Not just a little, not just "wintry mix" but real snow! Here is Micah following Nate's lead and trying to catch flakes on his tongue~



Micah was picking flakes off of Nate's gloves and eating them :P



I LOVE snow!



Family shot

Playing in the thicker stuff (pardon the fuzziness, the camera has a hard time focusing past the snow)

What is this stuff? It's AWESOME!

Yup, I was there too :)

Our side yard

Even thicker snow!

Our casa

This is probably my favorite snow pic :)

30 Weeks!

WOW. I am 75% of the way through my pregnancy if I go all 40 weeks! I am personally aiming to make it to 38 weeks but not 39 weeks... we'll see ;)

I thought I would use my weekly update to ask for some prayer from you guys. Saturday night I went to bed feeling fine and woke up 2 hours later very nauseated with sharp pains in my abdomen and contractions every couple of minutes. The contractions lasted somewhere between 3 and 4 hours and gave me quite a scare. They weren't getting any more intense so I was fairly sure they were Braxton Hicks, but they were so regular and lasted so long that I began to worry that I might be having this baby more than 7 weeks before full term. Anyhoo, if you think about it please pray for me and Elizabeth. That God would protect her and allow her to stay inside until she is fully developed and that he would give me wisdom on things I can avoid (in the case of this weekend, foods I should avoid... not sure what I ate but YOWSERS) that will keep episodes like this at bay. Thanks :)

Anyhoo, Lizzie is 30 weeks along as of today and her eyes are becoming more mature, and now she can tell the difference between light and dark. She can even follow a light source with her eyes. She is now the size of a head of lettuce (only less ball shaped :P ) and is 15 inches long and about 3 pounds!

Love it :)

Erin is hosting another giveaway, this time for a gift certificate to her store of lovliness :) Check it out http://thevintagepearl.blogspot.com/2009/12/gift-certificates-win-one.html

You Can't Put a Price on Cozy

.... and yet somehow, Gap Body did and I dearly love them for it :) I found these little beauties and bought them thinking they'd be good hospital, post Lizzie's birth shoes. Little did I know how COLD this winter would be (it's a relative cold... I'm sure people up North would think I was insane). Anyways, these babies are keeping my feet toasty warm and my face all smiles :) Thank you Gap Body... my feet and my sanity adore you ;)

Because We Never Get Pics Together

Function Over Fashion

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree how lovely is your gray plastic, toddler resistant barrier ;-) We bought our tree the day before Thanksgiving and carried it home (this time with my dad's help as I am not in prime tree carrying condition). I LOVE IT. I love having a real tree every year.... I love the smell, the feel, the hunt for the right shape and fullness. I love the lights, the ornaments and everything about the tree. Then I had a baby. Last year that baby was immobile and not an issue... this year not so much :P

A Christmas tree loaded with breakable and misplaceable ornaments suddenly looks more like a hassle than a joy when a toddler is involved..... But I couldn't just not have a tree, right? So I bought this lovely baby play yard (read, cage) and I have to say... totally worth it! I'm able to live the next month of my life without constantly worrying that Micah will redistribute our memories around the house never to be see again. Oh, and I can put the presents under the tree! All that being said, I do have to admit that the barrier doesn't do much for the aesthetics of the tree.... in fact, it's Ugly (with a capital U, don't cha know). But hey, an ugly bottom half of my tree is a good trade off for me keeping my sanity :) Don't worry, I'll take it off for Christmas morning ;-)

Pecan Upside Down Pie

Are you ready for the Thanksgiving sensation that's sweeping the nation??! It's bold, it's unconventional and it'll knock your socks off.... ready? TADA!!

That's right folks, pecan upside down pie. If you look closely at this cross sectional picture, you'll be able to spot the crust.... It's that whitish line between the top of the pie and the filling :) But wait, shouldn't the crust be UNDER the filling?! Not in this instant classic my friend. What components do you need to create such culinary genius? I'm glad you asked! You must have the following~

1) A perfectionistic baker taking her first stab at a homemade pie crust

2) An uncooperative crust that has to have a patch job once in place to repair a small tear

3) A whole lotta luck :P

So basically my pie crust bubbled while cooking and about half of my filling ended up under the crust :P At first I was upset because it wasn't perfect.... then we tasted it. OH MY GOSH!! The pie tasted perfect as always, just like my family always makes them, only this time instead of an overly thick, flaky, or dry crust we had a moist, gooey, shortbready crust creation.....it wasn't even stuck to the bottom of the pan like I feared.... awesome. I just wish I knew how to make the crust do this every time :)

29 Weeks

Ahhhhhhhhh, yeah! Big belly, big belly, big belly... oh yeah, big belly! (for those of you Ags who lived through the Big Booty craze of the 2000's ;-) Elizabeth is continuing to grow and develop and has begun to make her presence known even more so then before. She is kicking harder, rolling around constantly and assuring me regularly that she is ok, and/or miffed at me :). She is now the size of a Butternut Squash at around 14.25 inches long and 2.8 pounds!

Sanity Restored

Have you ever had something that has just been bugging you more and more and you don't know how to make it go away? Well, I've had a smell in my kitchen the past three weeks that I just couldn't figure out. It smelled like meat does when you've thrown away scraps but it is still a couple of days until trash pickup.

I would catch a whiff of the unpleasant odor and start a frantic search for the source. The weird thing was that the smell wasn't coming from near the trash can, it wasn't coming from the fridge, and it wasn't coming from near the disposal.... in fact, it was the furthest corner of my kitchen away from all of those things. A couple of times every day I would go NUTS looking for the source.... and then yesterday, I found it.

I had used four beautiful pumpkins to decorate a high shelf in my kitchen.... and one of them had liquefied. EWWWWWWWWW!! Three of the pumpkins were in perfect shape and while the fourth looked more or less solid, it was so rotted that when I tried to pick it up, the stem came off in my hand. EWWWWWWWWWW! I decided to spare you guys any pictures in case any of you were eating when you read this. Needless to say, I saved the scraping of the pumpkin off the shelf and the subsequent de-grossifying of the shelf for Nate :P

28 Weeks

Wow, there is NOTHING to really write about the development this week.... she's getting fatter and her brain is going from smooth to wrinkly... that's about it :) She is currently the size of a Chinese Cabbage... 14 in long and 2.5 lbs! In case there is any confusion, the above picture is not me, rather it is a Chinese Cabbage..... just to make sure we're clear :)

On to the next....

I have recently been hit by some inspiration for Micah's 2nd birthday party... I think it was the cold weather that got me thinking :) Lets just say it's going to involve a cookout, multiple inflatable things and LOTS of water. I have the menu, activities, favors and cake all worked out in my mind... at least conceptually.... all I need now is some inspiration on the invites :) On the upside, I think this is at least four months later than I started planning his first birthday party! Hmmm, Lizzie's first birthday party.. gotta get started on that ;-)

Gingerbread Fun

If you are looking for a gingerbread house experience without all of the hassle and mess, look no further! This site has a super fun house that you can decorate to your heart's content! Simply drag and drop the candies onto the house and let your imagination be your guide.. Have fun!

Micah Bean

On possibly the busiest weekend of her life, my sister-in-law Amy took time away from moving and taking care of her two kids and she and I dragged our pregnant bellies and Micah to the Japanese Gardens in San Antonio to get some pictures of him. Amy has started a photography business and I am SO excited we finally found a time to get some pics of Micah. I'm thrilled with how they turned out... Thanks Amy! I'm posting all of them on our photo site too :)