Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from my Walrus and (unhappy) Polar Bear!

Don't anyone tell C that Polar Bears and Walrus are enemies. 

He thinks they're best friends and we're going to go with that for now. 

My little walrus trick-or-treater ready to head out for night 2 of Halloween. 

On Wednesday we went to a Halloween party and C refused to wear his costume. 

Yesterday was trick-or-treat night in our town and though it was a minor crisis getting dressed he went out and had a GREAT time. He enjoyed seeing all the costumes of the other children and the pumpkins at each house. 

Today was the neighboring town's trick-or-treat. Husband's uncle and aunt live there and C has gone trick-or-treating to their house for every Halloween. It was COLD today so M stayed home with me but C went and did the whole cul-de-sac. It was even more fun today than yesterday I guess. 

I am just glad that after finding a Walrus costume he actually wore it and had a good time. He didn't say "Trick or treat" at every house but he did say 'Thank You" to everyone and I think that's pretty good. 

I hope you had a wonderful Halloween! 

Pumpkin Carving: A Photo Essay

It's that time of year again for pumpkin carving. We bypassed the pumpkin patch this year because someone (me) didn't feel like traipsing out into a field to find a pumpkin when they're so readily available at the grocery store. Never mind. The carving experience is fun regardless of where the pumpkin comes from. Without further ado, I give you Pumpkin Carving: A Photo Essay.

Cutting the top off the pumpkin. 

Helping scoop out the guts. C wasn't super helpful but he did like holding the scooper spoon. 

Little M helped too. 

All clean inside! 

Use your imagination here for when Husband was doing the actual carving and I was convincing C that waiting was going to be okay. He didn't think that was much fun. 

Checking out the finished and lit jack-o-lattern. It's a walrus. 

M and her first Halloween pumpkin. 

Pumpkin Walrus in all his glory. 

Ready for Thurday's Trick or Treat night. 

(We do celebrate it early here. And the next town over has trick or treat on Friday.) 

Just Checking In

Hello all. I am still here. I promise.

I didn't mean to drop off the face of the planet but I sort've did. Sorry.

We came home Friday morning. My parents left Saturday. My FIL and wife visited yesterday. And today was kind of a "new normal" day. More of a practice round really. Husband stayed home in the morning and went into work in the afternoon. But since rest is from 1-4 that's really only 2 hours with the gang by myself.

And before lunch I had M in one arm and C on my lap in the other arm. My hands were literally full. And I just smelled their heads and tried not to cry because life really is pretty good.

I am a hormonal mess right now. Pretty much anything can make me cry. And a new-to-me hormonal side effects I've been having cold flashes. Last night I was shivering so hard and I made husband get me an extra blanket. Then even with 2 blankets I just chattered away. For comparison's sake Husband didn't have a blanket at all.

I am working on the birth story but I am still trying to process the whole thing.

Sleep is short. Breastfeeding is going okay. C is adjusting pretty darn well. M has so far been a champ. She doesn't like diaper changes or sponge baths but otherwise is content.

I will try to get some posts up this week of things BESIDES the children but no promises, Except for Thursday because I will not post a kid picture for Theme Thursday I swear.

But since today is a "checking in post" here's one for you:

Theme Thursday: Good Job

Hooray! Theme Thursday is back! (Back Again.) Theme Thursday's Back! Tell A Friend!

This has been a pretty good two days in a row I am just saying. And I am going to totally cop out here with my picture but... my mind is a little bit distracted because BABY!

And I get to join in with my favorite link up on the web with ... another picture from yesterday. You're shocked. I know.

And even though I LOATHE when people tell me that "we did good work" like we had any control at all what our kids would look like I am pretty proud of the fact that she's here and I did it and that is worthy of a good job pat on the back. And the picture isn't too horrible for a no-natural lighting shot so that's pretty good too. 

Link up with Cari. Have a wonderful day! 

A Communion of Saints. Or a new baby. Same thing really.

On this the feast day of St. Pope John Paul II, who by the way is my favorite Saint and clearly was just the best Pope ever... I will be unable to eat pierogi and other delicious Polish foods because I am in the hospital with this little nugget:

Introducing Meredith Sophia, my little Feast Day friend. She is 8lbs, 9 oz and 20 inches long. 

She was born at 2:12 this morning and we are all doing great. THANK you for your prayers. 

I will write up her complete birth story when I have the chance but it was fast and wonderful and I am truly amazed at what the female body can do. 

God Bless St. Pope John Paul II. I am so thankful for his intercession in Meredith's birth. Again, it will be part of the birth story but when Bonnie posted her plans for today last Thursday I just knew somehow that it was destined to be her birthday. 

Thank you for your prayers, I truly felt them all and I feel so blessed to have my healthy daughter with me. (Though currently she is off getting her hearing checked with her daddy.)  

41+1

So.

I'm still here. And still very pregnant. 8 days past due now. I may be losing it just a little.

Baby Girl passed her ultrasound on Friday. (Enough practice breaths, fluid and movements.) She also passed her NST beautifully. And my body seems incredibly content to be an incubator. We go back tomorrow to see if there's any change and discuss the next steps.

My mind is over it though. And while I am trying to stay away from "Worst Case Scenario" mode, waiting is hard and sometimes those thoughts slip in.

Besides Castor Oil, if you name it, I've tried it to "naturally" induce. Okay, I haven't done Eggplant Parmesan either but you get the idea. I am trying to embrace the wait, I keep prepping things. I keep cleaning things. (My house is about as spotless as a house with a toddler can get.)

I try to stay away from prayer requests because there are people who need them way way more than I do. But I am asking, if you could spare a moment of prayer for me and Baby Girl we would much appreciate it. We are specifically asking for continued health and a BIRTH!

I may go silent. The internet has not been particularly helpful for keeping my mind busy. Know that every day I am offering up my wait for different readers and their intentions. If there's anything I can pray for specifically during labor, should it come, or while I wait please let me know.

The Countdown is On

In my attempt to keep busy this week I am blogging all the randoms and information. So that brings me to my very favorite time of year... holiday prep time. I've got to try to stay ahead of the pack on this one!

C is kind of really into looking at pictures of dogs/cats with pumpkins. It is a very easy request to grant. 

I may have mentioned I've got the Halloween costumes all figured out. Thank goodness because with every passing day Halloween gets closer. At this rate Baby Girl will only be tops a 2 week old. We did start buying some candy for our Halloween bucket but um... it's possible we were robbed and the only thing they took was the Peanut Butter Cups*. So we'll need to buy some candy. But I am not going crazy. Since we had a total of zero trick or treaters last year I am not super concerned about whether we have a whole lot available.

We'll have to squeeze in pumpkin carving but we can wing that. Especially since we already know where the carving tools are and we have a pumpkin already!

The Cornucopia of Carbs.
Recycled picture from Thanksgiving 2012. We hosted that year too. 

Then just a few weeks after that is Thanksgiving. Not my favorite holiday or anything but we will be hosting my family so that we don't have to travel. (NICE! Totally worth hosting!) We'll make some food (TBD) and play some board games and take it easy. Ideally we will coincide Baby Girl's baptism with Thanksgiving weekend but we can't schedule it until we have a birth date for the form so... that's still up in the air.

St. Nicholas is going to bring pajamas and a book for each kiddo. The pajamas are penguin themed because I figure that is all encompassing to winter--they aren't super Christmas-y but they'll work until it's warm outside. These are ordered already because Carter's has their $8 doorbuster pajamas and that's pretty sweet.

We will be keeping our Disney on Ice tradition, of which I am super excited about. And then of course we will also be making our gingerbread house again this year. These are our favorite "Advent Activities." They really have nothing to do with advent of course but they get us in a warm spirit and they are something to look forward to.

2012 Gingerbread House

2013 Gingerbread House
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Then moving on to Christmas! Only 69 days away. Which sounds really really crazy when you put it that way. We are keeping Christmas simple this year: other than an additional stocking I am not sure that I am going to buy any new decorations. For our immediate family we are doing: something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read. Then just a few other people are getting gifts this year.

I already ordered the something to read and St. Nicholas books for the kiddos. They'll be here today. Probably every pay check I'll get a few items off the list I made a while back so hopefully Christmas is easy peasy and not stressful.

Bringing us all the way to the beginning of 2015. New Year's has never been a big one for us so as long as we're all together we'll call that a win.

So those are the beginnings of my holiday plans! Should be pretty good as long as I stay on track!

*I may have eaten the Peanut Butter Cups