Merry Christmas!

We had a great Christmas Eve! Our tradition every year is to open presents then go to Christmas Eve service at our church which was wonderful then come home watch a family movie and eat snack foods for dinner. This year we watched G-Force, it was pretty good. We were hoping to leave for OKC Christmas Day early and the funny thing is we can't and it is not because of the roads in Iowa. OKC got around 8-10 inches of snow and ice which it has been years since they have had a white Christmas! We were supposed to get ice/snow here in Iowa but so far we have been blessed with just rain! Yesterday it was strange because the trees had ice on them but the roads were not slick. I wasn't complaining! Hopefully we can leave out Sat. early. We are ready to see our family and friends in OKC! Have a wonderful Christmas!

More Christmas!

Thanks to grandma and grandpa for helping buy this Wii the kids are pretty excited! This will be a lot of fun! I may get the Wii fit later!:) We already tried the bowling game very fun~!

Mario got some new guitar tab books.

Elise got some new clothes! She was a little unsure with all the Christmas Eve excitement! She was just ready to eat!:)

Elise hanging out...

Smiling and getting excited.

She loves to be talked too. She has been making new sounds lately which is fun. She has also been trying to raise her head to sit up, she is VERY strong. We leave for Oklahoma on Christmas Day after breakfast! Everyone is excited to visit family and friends. I can't believe baby Elise will be 6 weeks old this week. How time goes...

Snow and more Snow!

We bought these cute little mittens at the store Tuesday Morning to keep Elise's hands warm. It has been so cold here in Iowa.

Ethan and Emma playing around the house in their pj's. She is a cowgirl she said. We have to really use our imagination since we have been stuck inside the house because it has been so cold.

We got 15 inches of snow this week!

It is beautiful for the first few days now I'm ready for it to melt. I know I have a bad attitude about it, but it is so hard to get around with Elise. I think I just need a mini vacation back home to Oklahoma, hopefully it will be warmer than -8 degrees with no snow! Emma reminded me that without snow we would not have snowmen, snow angles, or snowballs! I told her she was absolutely right and asked her to forgive me when she heard me complaining about the snow! :) Elise has been smiling now. She doesn't do it for just anything or anyone so we are always working hard to do something funny to make her smile because when she does smile it is beautiful! I will try to catch her and take a picture. The kids are so excited for Christmas. Next week will go very fast because Mario is having friends over for video games and hot wings on Friday so I will clean all day Thursday. And Sat. I am hosting my first jewelry party for a friend at church. Then Sat night we promised the kids we would go look at Christmas lights. This year they want to do it all. Christmas music all the time, Christmas cookies, gingerbread house, look at Christmas lights, see Santa, and write Santa a letter. But I was proud to know that they still put Jesus first. I was talking to Mario and discussing when we should open presents before or after Christmas Eve service at our church and Ethan explained to us that we should wait to open presents after service since it is Jesus' birthday. I was very proud of him. :)

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."

We bought these red lights for our home in OK and used them once 4 years ago and packed them away until this year! The kids really like them. Mario had to get back up on the HUGE ladder for the top peak. After our summer of painting he said he wasn't going to get on it again for a long, long time. It is pretty scary up that high! I think we keep our neighbors entertained! After we put the lights up, put the huge ladder back in the garage, we walked out to the street to do a "Griswold light production" (I felt like we were in the Christmas Vacation movie, I haven't seen that movie in years) and the top light on the highest part of the peak was not working. Mario couldn't let it go so he gets the ladder back out, climbs to the top, and about breaks his neck literally to fix the burned out light! Needless to say our lights are up, stockings are hung and I plan to finish my Christmas shopping this week!!! :) Sorry this is so blurry, my camera has a mind of it's own these days! Maybe Santa will bring me a new one! :)

We love fresh garland, it smells so good!

I really like our urns on our front porch! It's amazing what some clippings from you own garden and red dogwood can do to add a little charm!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We didn't get to go home to Oklahoma to visit family and friends for Thanksgiving so we tried to make the best of the day even though we missed everyone. We had a delicious turkey with all the traditional fixings and I told the kids to set the table. And this is what they did. Emma put pink streamer everywhere and Ethan colored these pictures for us to enjoy. I know this Thanksgiving will be one to remember for sure! :) Notice the easel with his prize coloring page!

Our pies were incredible!

Emma snuggling Elise!

As you can see the kids are pretty attached to Miss Elise! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! :)

Sick baby!

Well last night I was up with baby Elise most of the night! She has a runny nose, sneezing, with slight temp! Poor baby you can tell by her eyes she doesn't feel good. She seems to be doing a little better this afternoon. She wouldn't take a nap for nothing this morning. She was up from about 6:30 am to around 1:30 pm. She was so tired but luckily I suctioned her nose and she is doing better. She HATES the nose sucker.:( She has never stayed awake that long. I think she just didn't understand why she felt so yucky. She kept staring at me with her beautiful blue grey eyes waiting for me to make her feel better. It is so scary when they are this small and have problems breathing. I just found out our friends daughter who is 1, has the H1N1. We are blessed that Elise just has a cold. But I think we will be staying home more. :)

Around the house!

I love these little shoes!

One of my nativity sets that my friend Paula gave me for Christmas last year!

Emma loving on her baby sister as she calls her! Many things have changed in my daily routine!

I don't have much time to update our blog, my shower went from 15 mins. to barely 5 mins. in the mornings, and multi-tasking is how I get anything done! But this pic of Emma holding Elise is how we all feel about her, she's pretty special!:)

Our Christmas tree decorating party!

Emma and Ethan love to kiss all over Elise! And Elise loves to watch them. I was very impressed at how careful they are when holding Elise. It seems so natural to them. Elise seems to feel very comfortable with them too. They can be very loud and crazy and it doesn't seem to bother Elise at all! :)

A little Christmas decorating!

I took all theses pics last weekend at our Christmas tree decorating party. We now have a tradition in place where we eat yummy snacks, play our Christmas music (my fav the Elf sountrack), and decorate the tree! We had a blast, I love this time of year. We have a lot to be thankful for.

Elise at 1 and 2 weeks old...

This pic was taken at 2 weeks old. Her skin is really lighting up, and her face is really filling out! :)

She already is changing from these pics I took at 1 week! She gained 10 ounces at her 2 week check up last week!

The kids on Halloween

Elise loves this car seat and this blanket! I bought this fabric at Hobby Lobby a few months ago and my friend Bonnie was so kind to make it for me. I will post more pics soon! I have a hungry baby to feed! :)

Trick or Treat!

Ethan is Optimus Prime the transformer and Emma is Cinderella! We went to our neighbor's on our street and Mario gave out candy! And picture of our pumpkins we grew this year!

Meet Elise Claire!!!

Elise Claire was born on Oct. 28th at 8:53 pm. She is our biggest baby at 8 lbs 1 oz and 20 inches long. I had went to the doctor that morning for just my routine checkup since I was past my due date my doctor and I were talking about inducing me on Wed. Nov. 4th but when she went to listen to Elise's heartbeat it measured at 190 which she had always been around 139-156 so my doctor wanted to take her that day since Elise seemed very stressed. I literally left my appt. and went straight to the hospital. It took from 2:00 pm until around 8:40 pm to get dialted to a 10! But then around 13 mins later she was in my arms! Mario and I are very proud! The last week seems like a blur. The kids are always kissing and loving on her! They are pretty excited about her!

39 weeks, 5 days and counting...

I had Mario snap a picture of me today at 39 weeks, 5 days, and still counting! I really can't complain too much I still feel pretty good. I'm just sooo ready to hold her in my arms rather that in my stomach. My face is now starting to swell which is pretty normal for me and I have cankles which I know are very attractive! :) We installed her car seat today which was pretty exciting for me. My doctor will induce me at 41 weeks, so we just might have 1 more week! Tom. I'm going to try doing some walking. It worked when I was pregnant with Ethan so I'm going to give it a try. I am dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced so maybe just maybe! :)

Ethan and Emma helping with some raking today. Except Ethan decided the snow shovel would work better! Emma is practicing dancing. She is taking traditional ballet and loves it. Today she asked me if we could install a "dancing bar" in our living room for her to practice. She also asked me a few weeks ago if she could have her own cell phone. I asked her why and she said to call her grandparents and friends. I told her to ask again in 10 years...

A few weeks ago we had our first "snow" of the season. Just a trace. I was taking some recycling to our bin and turned around to find our 10 year old cat Cindy had snuck outside to enjoy the snow.

Great Baby Elise News!

I went to the doctor today and received the best news! Baby Elise has dropped and I'm dilated to a 2! Hey it is a start so I'll take it. Her heart rate was great at 137. So now I feel the pressure to finish up a few things around the house and get my bag packed! :) With Ethan I was only dilated to a 1 on my due date and Emma I was induced a week early due to swelling and my blood pressure so this is wonderful news. I'm off to enjoy some yummy cake since it is my 33rd birthday, yikes. :) Mario asked me what I wanted to do and I said stay in, have a good home cooked meal, eat some sweet cake, and rent the movie The Proposal. Our menu, chicken fried steak with homemade mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans. :)

Car Seat Purchase!

I bought the fabric for this blanket at Hobby Lobby a few months ago and my friend Bonnie was so kind to make baby Elise a beautiful blanket, I love how it matches the stroller/car seat so well. It is fleece, a softer heavier material great to use in car, shopping, etc. I found this stroller on line at most stores but it was cheapest at Wal-mart.com. I was a little nervous ordering a car seat that I had never seen in person before but the reviews were all wonderful so I decided to just go for it last week when I saw it was on sale! And I'm so glad I did! I love the quality and pattern. It really was a good deal at around $150.00 for the system. And it only cost 2.37 to ship directly to our house. There is something very exciting about buying the car seat, its like I know we are about to meet our sweet baby girl but here we now have her car seat that she will use! I can't stop looking at it and imagining her in it... This Tuesday marks 38 weeks. My feet are swelling again, I now have no ankles!!! I went to doctor last Friday and baby has not dropped at all! I go again this Thursday so I'm hoping for something, anything! But who knows she might just decide to be late and be a Nov. baby, I'm trying to really just enjoy everything with this pregnancy because it might just be our last! It snowed on Sat. so our weather is crazy, today it is sooo gloomy. This past weekend we went ahead and bought the kids new snow boots, hats, gloves and coats. Old Navy and the mall in general were crazy busy, I think a lot of parents had our same idea! Enjoy you week! I'm off to clean my house and light my pumpkin candle! :)