Thanksgiving 2012

Marc was assigned to be on OB and medicine call for Thanksgiving this year. Because he was covering OB, he had to be within 20 minutes of the hospital which meant he could not be with us at his parents' house which is 40 minutes away. And of course, he didn't get any calls the entire day. :) He was able to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal with our extended family that live in Peoria so we all got our fix of turkey.

Eli and Hailey were helping Papa scope out the good deals for the day-after sales

 Eli and Evan

 Maddy and Hailey

 Hailey was fascinated by Maddy's Merida wig from the movie Brave. She loves dress-up right now so I found a Cinderella dress the day after Thanksgiving that she will be so excited to open this Christmas.

 We enjoyed watching these cousins play together.

 It was even warm enough for us to take an outing to the park. I hope the above average temperatures continue through winter!

We sure missed spending time with Marc on Thanksgiving, but we were excited to see when we got home that he had the kids' new beds put together (Hailey has a pink comforter that is on the way). We are moving Hailey into Eli's room and will put the new baby in Hailey's room at night when he is two or three months old. They are SO very excited about this that we know we are bound to lose some sleep once we make the transition. I am sure lots of giggles and laughs will be coming from those beds way past bedtime. ;) In the past 3 months we have potty trained Hailey, broken Hailey of her pacifier, broken Eli of his thumb sucking habit, and started Eli in a new school. These are two very adaptable kids so I am hopeful this move will go just as well. Marc is much less optimistic. Ha!

Gymnastics

Eli and Hailey loved participating in gymnastics this Fall. They both learned some fun new skills. Hailey was really struggling with jumping with two feet before the class and she can now jump on the floor or on the trampoline. They both can do great somersaults and love practicing those anywhere there is carpet. :)

I really felt bad for not being able to continue the sessions for them, but I just wasn't going to be able to do Hailey's class with her any longer (I made it to 29 weeks). She requires lots of assistance in her class and can't participate yet without an adult. I KNEW she would not tolerate sitting in the stands and watching Eli do his class if she couldn't. So, I decided to drop both of them for this next session. Hopefully, we can pick it back up in the Spring when they can each do a class on their own. Marc came and watched one morning when he was off from work and took some pics with my phone. Mama Reenie also came one week to enjoy the show!

 Our kids love this long trampoline that they get to bounce on to the end.

Sometimes Hailey made me work really hard! She often became a sack of potatoes if she didn't know how to do something. Glad daddy caught this moment in between his laughs! It is a great reminder to me of why we are taking a break for the next session. Ha!

There's our big girl. :)

Eli and Hailey both learned how to pull their toes up to the bars.

Halloween Day

The shark was clearly not happy to have a class picture taken!

Lots and lots of fun. We look forward to doing this again!

Our Sweet Baby #3...

....still doesn't have a name, but I think we are closer to committing to one! I'll keep it a secret for now. ;) I have become more relaxed with the name-game with each pregnancy. This time around I just feel like we need a name before we leave the hospital. That should be do-able. :) I am a little over 31 weeks and feeling really good. Tired some days and beginning to waddle a little, but overall things have been easy peasy. I keep feeling like this baby might come a few weeks early because of these Braxton-Hicks but we'll see as the time gets closer.

Week 24

This is my third pregnancy to wear this shirt. Kinda fun!

 Week 28 in Arkansas

Week 31

Passing Time

How did November pass so quickly??? I just realized I haven't put up our November happenings on the blog with all the business that this time of year brings. After our trip to Arkansas and to a medical missions conference in Louisville, KY at the beginning of the month, we then celebrated my birthday, joined a church, repainted a bedroom for Eli and Hailey, decorated that same bedroom with some twin beds and bedding, finished up our season of gymnastics, ordered Christmas cards, enjoyed some turkey on Thanksgiving (though Marc was working and unable to join us!), did some online shopping for Christmas, hosted several residents in our home for dinner, decorated a Christmas tree, and I still feel like I am missing stuff! It has been a busy month. My hope was to get most of the busy stuff done so that we could enjoy a relaxing month of December as we celebrate Jesus. I have decided the "to do" list is never done and I need to just surrender each day to God and pray for wisdom to see what I am doing that can have eternal significance. I am, however, thankful that some of the preparation means December should be slower than November. And the busy things we do have for December will be spent in fellowship with friends and family at parties, birthdays, and weddings. Stay tuned for a few catch-up posts from the month...