38 Weeks!!

Well this is it! My final 2 weeks have arrived! I am soo ready as always but I have accepted the fact that i won't go early so it is just a waiting game at this point. I went to the OB on Wednesday and she said everything is perfect. She weighs 6-6 1/2 pounds so by the time we deliver she will be around 7 pounds or a little more. PERFECT! And I did score a free H1N1 vaccine while I was there so that is good...now if I could only get the rest of the crew vaccinated I will sleep a little easier. Who knows if or when that will happen though. My pinched nerve in my stomach is just AWFUL, as usual and she said the only remedy for it is delivery...which will bring on a whole new array of aches and pains but she will be so worth it! It is really sinking in that the end is in sight so that gives me much joy to think about that rather than that fact that I have been pregnant since JANUARY!! That is a long time! Well, Heath-o is ready for me to check out his paint job in the nursery so I am off. Week 39 here we come!!!

Nice Little Saturday

I started off my Saturday sleeping til noon which is just UNHEARD of!! I think it was a combination of things: didn't feel so good yesterday, didn't sleep well Friday night, no nap Saturday, Heath was home to keep Crosby occupied... when I woke up I felt pretty rested which was so nice. The first thing I did was call my friend Kathy Johnson (anna's mil) because she is taking Tally, our cockatiel, home to live with her. It was pretty hard for me to give her away and I only would give her to someone I COMPLETELY trusted to love her and give her the attention that she needs. I know in my heart this is the best thing for her and I am so relieved to have a friend willing to take care of her. I just know with the baby coming next week that there will be no time for our birdy girl and that is just not fair to her.

Meanwhile.... as crosby and I were cleaning her cage (she is such a help, REALLY!) and getting her ready to go live with the Johnsons, hubby was hard at work in the nursery. We finally got all of the wallpaper scraped so he has been busy texturizing the walls and painting them a BEAUTIFUL pink! He is almost finished and tonight we are going to rip up the carpet and clean the floors so we can start moving things in tomorrow!! YAY!

And last... I got this crazy idea to crochet a rug for the nursery so here it is so far...
I am hoping to make it 7x9 feet so it will take a while. The biggest obstacle so far is finding pink sheets! I raided what my mom and I had and went to both Goodwill and Salvation Army in AC yesterday. So now I am on the HUNT! If anyone has any I will take them! I really only want pink or pink with white... as you can see one had a little yellow and blue in it but I want to stick with the pink. I think it will be awesome when I am finished with it and I will be sure to post the end result.

Our Week

So my first week of maternity leave was busy. I did some cleaning (am trying to save a lot of that for next week so my house is nice and clean when I get home from the hospital) but mostly focused on checking things off of my mental to-do list. I always try to include chores and fun stuff on my list. Here are a few things accomplished:

• I did a scrapbook page for a sketch contest at the Attic
• Washed baby clothes
• Mailed thank yous
• vacuumed
• organized baby shower gifts
• played with the girls
• rested
• folded laundry...
  

Tricia (a scrapbooking friend of mine) brought by a BEAUTIFUL baby gift...
A paisley diaper bag and soft blanket with her name embroidered on them. I was soo happy to get these beautiful things from Tricia, Heather, and Dana. Thanks girls!










Crosby has been begging me forever to make
cupcakes with her in her little cupcake maker (think easy bake oven) that she got from her friend Avery for her birthday. The mix make ONE cupcake!! I thought it would make a few more than that but I guess not and of course ours looked NOTHING like the picture but we had fun doing it together and that is what it's all about!

Montessouri Open House

Tuesday night Crosby had her preschool open house so we ventured to Ark City for the evening. She had so much fun running around her school showing us everything.

Crosby LOVES her school. Her teachers just love her too! Miss Kori told me how much they enjoy having Crosby again this year and that she is always nice to the other children... she says that she is like a mother hen to them (she is the oldest in her class this year) and that she especially watches after the underdog or tiny kids in class. I thought that was so cool to hear. It is always nice to get a genuinely great report from a teacher. I have so much respect for what they do...I know that I would probably go nutty hanging around a million preschoolers all day!!! After we went to Sirloin Stockade for dinner. Kids eat for $.99 on Tuesdays so Heath thought this was PERFECT! (He is kinda stingy!) He kept joking with the girls saying that they could only order off of the 99 cent menu and that they needed to eat as much as they could so we didn't have to feed them for a couple of days. TOO FUNNY!! After we were stuffed (I couldn't eat as much as I thought I would, running out of room in there!) we were all sitting at the table visiting (Grammy went with us) and I noticed that Crosby started to get a little sleepy and Chel was taking care of her. So sweet!

I realized that Adler isn't in any of these pics but she was with us!! of course! She was by my side the whole time!

Big Girl's Last Soccer Game

These picks came out a little dark (something my sweet camera does at dusk). Monday night was the girls last soccer game of the season. They won 1-0 and both of our girls played hard as usual. It is so cool to watch them play. The field is HUGE and they really have to work hard out there to make things happen. I think Adler and Chelo each had 3 goals for the season which is FABULOUS especially since most games only have 2 or 3 goals scored total! I also think it is so good for them exercise wise because they do so much running...this sport is definitely not for every girl...only the toughies!!

Pumpkin Carving and The Curtis Family Annual Halloween ParTAY!

Daddy helped his girls carve pumpkins Saturday for the contest at Grandma and Grandma's Halloween party. It was a BEAUTIFUL day for being outside doing fall activities. Adler and Chelo did their own designs this year and did a really good job.

Grandma and Grandpa Curtis LOVE their family and having family holiday parties. Each year they have a costume party for the kiddos complete with Halloween themed food...

scary costumes... (Heath watching football in a bloody hockey mask!)

The 14 grandkids all decked out...

My nerd, kitten, and Mario...soooo caaauuute!!

TJ and Kelli's kiddos...

Kris and Ann's crew...

Lynnda and Clint's son Beriah the Ninja...

all of the cool pumpkins lined up for the contest... they had a judge and each of the kids won prizes and ribbons...

this year Grandma outdid herself and rented a bouncy castle for the kids. They jumped all evening and just had a blast with it.

The girls going through their candy and making trades!

And crazy Grandma and Grandpa also take on the challenge of having all 14 of them sleep over. Which I think must be madness but it gives the moms and dads a chance to have a night to themselves. We decided to go to a movie, we saw Couples Retreat. It was okay...kinda slow in some parts but HILARIOUS in others. Vince Vaughn is definitely one of our FAVORITE comedic actors and he had us cracking up!! It was soo good to have a date night with my hubby...it had been too long!

Grandpa put together a light show for the kids... Crosby thought it was a little spooky!

Last game

Another successful season has come to and end and we couldn't be more proud of how the girls played. Soccer is a challenging sport... rough, tons of running, and playing in the cool fall temperatures. Our girls don't complain about it though and just seem to love to play. Today was Crosby's last game and she is already looking forward to playing her first year of indoor soccer which doesn't even start til after the first of the year!! She played really hard today even though it was cold and windy, she didn't mind. She even said she was getting hot at one point! And at another time in the game she got kicked in the throat! I'm not sure how that happened but it did! The big girls finish their season tonight so I will post more soccer pics tomorrow. Good job girls!!!

Look What Crosby Can DO!!!!!

We decided to send Crosby to Montessouri PreSchool again this year because her birthday is so close to the date cutoff that we thought it would be so much more of an advantage for her in the long run to be the oldest in school rather than the youngest. My only concern with all of this was that I know she is ready for Kindergarten this year and what would pre-school be like for the third time around??? Well, my concerns have all but vanished since school has started...she has a lot of new friends, they don't seem to be repeating everything they have done in the past, and she is still be challenged to learn new things or refine what she already knows (like writing her name/numbers). She came home from school last week and boy did she have something to show us that she had learned that day at school!! She could tie her shoes! I was so exited for her! It is another huge milestone... and just in the nick of time too with my limited ability to bend over these days! You can see the concentration on her face (she has to hold her tongue just right!). The video is a little dark sorry!

37 Weeks!

Well here I am this week in all of my glory!! I am feeling rather huge these days and when I walk I have to remind myself not to do the pregnancy waddle!! No contractions so far and I am not expecting a whole lot in that area b/c I probably won't go into labor before my delivery date. I am just one of those lucky gals who gets to stay pregnant until the doctor decides it is time to take the baby. It must be really warm and comfy in there---my girls just don't want to come out!! On an exciting note...tomorrow is my last day of teaching. YIPEE!! I will be so glad when that alarm has not gone off at 6am and I can take an afternoon nap!! Each day seems longer and harder as I expected it would. By the end of the day, I am so tired and sore that all I can do is go home and put my feet up. Heath has been AWESOME the last couple of weeks doing all of the housework and laundry. Thank goodness b/c I can't even think about chores after work. I did fix dinner, pick up Crosby, and get milk and oj last night! that is a HUGE amount accomplished for me in an evening!! Heath did say last night that he is missing the "old Danelle" and is ready to have me back. I have been feeling that way for about a month now! We did have some good laughs last night...we set up a Facebook page for Heath and he and Adler and I were just rolling!! We put a random picture of my cousin Jared as his profile pic and we were putting random things on his status and friend requests. We were being sooo goofy but no one said anything!! I can't believe no one noticed that picture of Jared yet!!! TOO FUNNY! If you haven't already jump on and friend Heath and check it out!!!

Dia de Los Muertos

I am finishing up my last few days of teaching before maternity leave. Today Anna came with me to observe for the second time. Anna is going to be doing my long term sub while I am at home with the baby. It is so nice to know that one of my good friends is taking care of my class while I am gone! She is going to do an awesome job! It is so nice that it worked out so this way... Anna is in the teaching program at Southwestern to be a science teacher. She decided to sub this semester to get experience before she student teaches in the fall. So we are both pumped about how everything has worked out. We had our monthly FLC (Foreign Language Club) meeting at school today. We talked a little about Dia de Los Muertos (a spanish holiday) and the kids made sugar skulls and ate my homemade chips and salsa. It was a little chaotic but I think the kids had fun. Anna put together all of the sugar mixture, she was in wet sugar to her armpits!! Welcome, my friend to the world of teaching!!!

Maple Memories

Lindsay and I went to Maple Memories this past weekend. MM is a house (similar to mine) that has been totally remodeled (unlike mine :) and is rented out to scrapbookers. How cool is that?? I have been once before last fall and let me tell ya, this is the place to go to relax and recharge. It is especially wonderful in the fall with all of the leaves changing colors. The house is in McPherson, KS which is similar in size to Winfield but Lindsay and I were amazed by all of the small town charm. The downtown is full of little shops and restaurants and seems to be hoppin at all times!! We went to a specialty baby shop and boy did they have some interesting items there!!! Including, something you wear like a bra that will support your breast pump so you can walk around pumping hands free!!! Also, a bra that has little reservoirs to catch any breast milk leakage so you can save it!! And if you are in to cloth diapers they specialize in that too!! As you can see most of the products were a little out there but i did find some headbands for her and a little vinyl bag to keep in my diaper bag to hold dirty clothes if we are out of the house...oh and it is brown and pink paisley pattern!!!! The Scrapfunattic girls bought her a huge red fluffy tutu and legwarmers from there too!! Soo cute!

This is my crop space--what a mess!!!

Lindsay and I like to work on pages together. It is one of our "things" that have sooo much fun doing. We print pics of all of the activities that we do together (which between scrapbooking, work, and stuff with our families---turns out to be a ton!!) and make layouts together! We have been doing this since Lindsay started cropping last year and just love it!!

Here we are working on Bluegrass 2009 (don't you just LOVE Lindsay's concentration face!!!) :)

I got 25 pages done so I was pretty happy about that!! I think Lindsay got about 20 and made me 2 more onesies!! Soo cute...there is a "baby rock star" one and a "princess paisley" both so darn adorable that I can't decide if she will wear them or have them hanging in her room! As for the preggo girl... I kept my feet propped but my ankles still swelled to the size of my calves practically. Thankfully the swelling has gone down and my feet are pretty much back to normal. My back on the other hand is not that great. I have had a pinched nerve for the past few months that has gone from my back to the right side of my stomach. It feels like I am being stabbed in that one spot pretty much 24hrs a day. I am learning to just live with it and I keep reminding myself "2weeksleft, 2weeksleft" so that helps. Plus I know how worth it she will be!!!

36 Weeks!

Heath said that this outfit made my tummy look really big and I tried to convince him that it wasn't just the outfit....that I am BIG!!! I had an OB appt. today that went very well. Today the baby had the hiccups (she does at least once a day or more!!) during the Doppler and then she would kick at the noise of it. The nurse was laughing so hard and I was just looking at her like "welcome to my everyday!!" Hiccups and big time movement are just normal for her!! I know this is the ONE this I will miss about being pregnant---not feeling her move inside of me, it is just the coolest thing! So the Dr. said that we are doing great and doesn't even need to see me next week!! She said unless I start contracting or swelling than I will go back in 2 weeks! So I scheduled a two week appt and then one for the next week and we realized that was it!! After that the baby will be here!! I have no doubt that I will carry her all of the way to my delivery date even though she pushed it back a week. I am not planning or even holding out hope that I will go early. My body just doesn't work that way... even being almost 2 weeks overdue with Adler I NEVER dilated even to a finger tip. The only reason I went into labor was b/c she was so big the pressure forced my water to break sending me into contractions that led to... nada---hence the c-section. I am told the opening of my uterus is 180 degrees from where it should be (in line with the opening of my cervix) so there is no way for a baby to be born naturally!! Awesome!! She also said she felt like the baby was back to being breech. I'm telling you...these girls do things their own way!!! I am dealing with tons of heartburn, fatigue, back pain, and nausea these days and just overly ready to no longer be pregnant but I am hanging on and trying to remain positive!!! Not long now!

Winfield Baby Shower

Kara and Teresa hosted a baby shower this past sunday for me at my house. Check out the BEAUTIFUL diaper cake that Kara and Renee (from the Attic) put together for me!! I love it so much I don't know if I can bear to take it apart! It may just be a permanant decoration in her room!!! The girls making ice cream sundaes. YUMMY!!!

Playing the toliet paper game!!

Kim and Chelo were the closest...almost perfect!

Adler wearing her super cute hat that Grammy got for each of the girls.

Opening gifts...check out that SWEET new carseat!!! Thanks Grammy!

We hung the onsies for decoration!! Again, so cute I want to hang them in her room!!!

My dear sweet Georgia took a break from her busy life at KU to be at my shower. We had so much fun! I miss her and was sooo glad she could come!!!

We had a great time and I am feeling so thankful to have so many wonderful friends and family members to share this special time in life with us!! Thanks for everything my friends!!!