Merry Christmas 2008

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! We enjoyed celebrating together and had such fun. It was small, but it was filled with delicious food and big laughs watching Madison play with her new toys. I've always loved the Christmas season so much, but watching it through your child's eyes is even better!

We waited for Madison to wake up (she likes to sleep in) before we opened stockings and gifts. I imagine that once our kids reach a certain age, the days of sleeping in on Christmas mornings will be long gone. My mom was wonderful prior to Christmas as she did a lot of shopping for us and made sure our stockings were full and gifts were wrapped under the tree. Madison's favorite stocking stuffer was her new plastic multi-colored bracelets. She's really into wearing jewelry lately and improvises with other household items. Now she has her very own play bracelets. Although she puts them not only on her wrists, but also on her feet.

While opening gifts, we Skyped with my dad, sister and her fiance. So, we "virtually" unwrapped gifts together on Christmas morning. Thank the Lord for modern technology, huh? Mom fixed a big, traditional breakfast, and we spent the rest of the morning lounging around. Mark put together toys and baby gear. And Mom cooked a nice lunch of a spiral ham and all the fixings. I watched from the couch. :)

Madison's other favorite gifts include her swingset, a new bubble lawn-mower (we purposefully chose not to get her the pink one!), a baby doll, CD's, a second swing for her swingset, a grocery cart, Fisher Price Animal Farm, some books, hair bows, and clothes, paint dobbers, and some money from Great Pappy and Great Grandma and Grandpa Miller...she is very loved!

Hunter and Mommy were thrilled to receive a new double stroller, a second camera for our video monitor, a new Fisher Price swing and a new baby sling, and money from Great Grandparents.

I also received a beautiful ring from Hunter and Madison (thanks for helping Daddy pick it out!). And, I received some makeup, clothing items, and gift cards. Mark received a new tool bench, a new workout band and money to go toward some new weight lifting all-in-one dumbell set contraption (?), some house slippers from Madison and Hunter, books, giftcards, etc.

My most favorite gift, by far, was being able to be at home with my family. I am SO thankful!!!! (As I said before, I am not the type of person who is interested in nor a personal advocate of home births. However, I don't even want to see another hospital again!)

As much as I love the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season and being with lots of family and traveling, etc...it was really nice to be at home which allowed me to quietly reflect on all of the many blessings God has bestowed in my life in the past couple years, especially. I have been witness to many miracles and can testify that the Lord truly grants the desires of your heart when you have faith in Him. I am forever grateful.

You, Lord, give true peace to those who depend on you, because they trust you.

So, trust the Lord always, because he is our rock forever.

Isaiah 26:3-4

The Lord is kind and does what is right; our God is merciful. The Lord watches over the foolish; when I was helpless, he saved me. I said to myself, "Relax, because the Lord takes care of you." Lord, you saved me from death. You stopped my eyes from crying;

you kept me from being defeated. So I walk with the Lord in the land of the living.

Psalm 116: 5-9

We began our morning opening Madison's stocking...

Oh, I had no idea today was going to be so exciting, guys!

Yay! Look at my new bracelets!

They're so cool!

And when other people open gifts and I get bored, I just stack all the gifts in one pile...

I find it's easiest to open gifts while you sit on them.

See, we did "open" gifts with the whole family...

Tyson had a special viewing area, too...

Grammy adds to Madison's Fisher Price Nativity set each year. Madison's favorite thing to do is take off the angel from atop the stable roof and replace her with a wiseman, shepard, or donkey heralding over baby Jesus...

Reading a new book with Daddy

Opening more gifts


How lucky are we that since Madison has received her lawn mower, she has mowed our wood floors and rugs CONSTANTLY, over and over and over...

Oh, please, please, please, just one more push?

Madison loves to do art work with these paint dobbers. Her teacher told us this was one of her favorite art activities. So, she told us where to find them and we got them for her...and she's used them each day since.

Madison painting Grammy a beautiful masterpiece

Hunter, we made it to 36 weeks!!! Way to go, sweetie!!!

I know, it looks freakish.

Merry Christmas Eve 2008!

Merry Christmas Eve! I hope your Christmas Eve has been filled with a warm sense of joy, peace, and the Spririt of our Lord Jesus today. I hope you've enjoyed the day with friends and family.

Poor Madison woke up with a high fever this morning. Mark took her into the doctor to discover she has both a sinus infection and ear infection. She did much better once she had medicine in her and finally started playing this afternoon. But tonight, she got sick after eating. My heart hurts to see her like this. She just looks so pitiful (very cute, but pitiful) and like she feels miserable. I wish I could take all of the pain away.

We've had such a wonderful time with my mom here. She is the queen of being productive! Everything is organized, ironed, cooked, bought, wrapped, etc. and we appreciate all of her attention to detail. (It's nice to have had both our moms here!) I don't know how she has so much energy to constantly run around, laugh, sing and dance with Madison all day long. It blows my mind.

Mark has been off of work all week and it's been so nice to have him here. He's enjoyed doing some projects, putting together Madison's new swing set, putting together Hunter's nursery furniture, and playing with Madison. And, he put up our Christmas tree. This year, we have opted to take a rest from decorating our tree. Hey, at least we have a tree put up! We've just had a lot going on this season...so are just relaxing and letting some things slide. I wouldn't do it every year, but I kind of like getting away with it!

Yesterday, Mark went with me to the doctor. The BPP went very well and all looked healthy in the ultrasound. Dr. said that he's not concerned about anything at this time and if I go into labor, he's not going to stop it. Amniotic fluid increased to 12! Yay! And, no restriction of blood flow in cord. Baby is breech and making me really, really, really uncomfortable. I can hardly move. And don't get me started on the topic of acid reflux or heartburn. We have to go to the hospital to get a NST (non stress test) on Friday. Another hospital? Is it necessary? Doctor says we can't wait a whole week until our next appointment, so since their office is closed on Friday, we'll need to get the test done at the hospital.

Oh, that reminds me...a couple nights ago at about 4 am, I got up to go to the restroom. Mark huffed and puffed, told me I was making too much noise and moving too much. I told him, "Shut up (I've never said that before). Next time you're nine months pregnant, get back to me on what's inconvenient to you." Conversation, over. I felt bad about it later, but not too bad... :)

Today we've been busy taking care of Madison, as I said earlier. I've done some more photography work on my computer. My mom has been cooking and baking all day...much to my utmost delight. And Mark cooked an incredible meal of Trinidadian chicken curry. It was absolutely to die for. Raymond, our former neighbor who's from Trinidad, has taught Mark how to cook several Trinidadian meals. We loved it! It was a great treat tonight.

Mark puts together the swing set

Weeeeee!! I love it!!!
Madison opens her Christmas jammies from Grammy (tradition my mom has done each year since I was little), while practicing her "Ho Ho Ho's" like Santa says, with Daddy.

...the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

18 months difference

From then...

...to now...

Amazing how quickly they grow....

Meanwhile, Madison has been reclaiming all of her baby items that we've recently gotten back out to use after Hunter arrives...we'll see how she acts when he's actually using them!

Happy 18 months old, Madison!

Happy 18 months old, Madison! You are officially a year and a half old!

Yesterday, we had a great day filled with special friends. First, Clareanne, Raymond, Laura and Stephen (our former neighbors in Katy) visited. It was wonderful to see them! They brought Madison a Christmas gift - her first real looking baby doll. She has enjoyed feeding it a bottle...good practice for when a live baby comes home? We'll see.

Later, Brian, Jamie and Avery came over and they brought Mexican food for dinner!! I LOVED it. It was so yummy. I miss my cheese enchiladas right now, actually. (Sorry, I get distracted by food often these days.) It was so nice of them. Avery and Madison had lots of fun playing together. We got some really cute pictures.

So at 18 months...Madison is thoroughly intrigued with books from morning 'til night. Her favorite thing to do is read. And, she will read to you. She makes up words and just babbles on and on and on... It's so funny to hear. We can also call out specific titles of books and she'll go to her stack of books and pick out the specific book we've asked for. She points to certain objects in her books, kisses the babies in her books, and shows Daddy how to count from one to five in one of her books. She tries to count from one to five with Daddy on her fingers, but we've not yet completely mastered that perfectly. She also likes to dance and spin, spin, spin to music. Soon enough, she looks like she's had too much to drink and will fall to the floor or run into furniture, laughing of course. And as we said before, she loves to spin, run and climb on everything. Her favorite game is hide and seek or chase with Daddy.

Best buds...Avery and Madison...what cuties!

Our weekend

My mom got here on Friday afternoon - we are so glad she is here!! It's really nice to be home this time while she's visiting. Madison reached out for her and took to her immediately; it had only been about 3 wks since she'd last seen her, so she remembered my mom right away. They've been having so much fun together.

Last week, my brother-in-law, Ryan, sent me two beautiful bouquets of roses, a couple dozen in all. They are beautiful. He sent them as a welcome home gift to me and I was so surprised! It was really sweet. Also, the baby's NST (non stress test) went really well and we passed for this week - yay! Guess what? While sitting in the waiting room (my dr's practice is the largest in our town, so it's pretty big), a girl next to me struck up a conversation with me. She has a young daughter already and is pregnant with a baby boy, like me. Come to find out, we have the same OB and she's scheduled for a c-section on 1/12 in the time slot right before ours! How coincidental is that? Anyhow, my next appointment is on Tuesday. Mark is off of work all week (yay!) and will be able to go with me to the appointment.

For Christmas, Mark's folks, my folks, and Mark + I went in together and bought a swingset for Madison and Hunter (to grow into) to put in our backyard. We figured this would be ideal, since Madison is in love with playgrounds and especially because she climbs on every piece of furniture we own. So...we thought this would be a good decision to get now. We wanted something that would be age appropriate; not something small that she'd grow out of in a year, but also not a play system too advanced. So we decided on a Step2 durable plastic (we'd be able to move with it) swingset, with two swings - good for Mommy with soon to be two kids. :) Anything that can provide entertainment for the kids is good in my book! I think Mark was more excited about getting this than anyone else. He's been happily putting it together over the weekend.

Yesterday morning, Mark took Madison out to play...dressed in her pajamas, pink socks and tennis shoes. She would rather be outside than anywhere else. She could happily play outdoors 24/7, if you let her. As you can see, she had a blast playing in the mud. She loves rocks and dirt. She had quite the collection and quite the messy outfit and face. Thank goodness for stain remover and soap.

Thank you for my beautiful roses, Ryan!! This pic was taken a few days ago, but the roses are now huge - probably the largest roses I've seen. We miss you!!

Look at my new rock!

This is where I collect my mud and rocks.

Mess? What mess?

And see this one?

We'll miss you, Granddaddy and Nana!

Mark's parents left on Friday. We appreciate all of the help they gave to us through cooking, home improvement projects, shopping and especially taking such great care of Madison. She will miss them so much! She had a blast with them. During the time they were here for a little over 3 weeks, Madison has learned several new words, new animal sounds, to cook with Nana (oh, and since Madison can say/babble Nanananana, Elaine changed her name from Grandmommy to Nana!), and Elaine taught her when asked what Santa says, Madison will respond a hearty "HoHoHo".

Update 12/17

I had a successful visit to my OB's office yesterday afternoon. It was great to see my usual doctor again. Thank the Lord, everything went well!

Biggest highlight:
Hunter will be born on Monday, January 12th at 11 am! (must do c-section)
...unless something comes up that requires us to push forward the date...which is possible.

Other highlights:
- Hunter weighs 5 lb 15 oz! (Just Thursday, he weighed 5.0 lbs! But, we know the measurement is with a 10% +/- margin of error.
- Amniotic fluid is 9.0: still low, but better than last Thursday!
- No blood obstruction in umbilical cord seen
- Breech, of course
- Gained 2 lbs. I now weigh just as much as I did on the day I had Madison! She was 5 lb 4 oz. No, I'm not saying how much I weigh, are you crazy?

I made 8 separate appointments before leaving the office... From here on out, my doctor wants to see me twice a week. (Their main concern now is level of amniotic fluid.)

Tuesdays = Biophysical Profile test (fetal ultrasound, specifically checking amniotic fluid, health of placenta and blood obstruction in the cord, baby's growth).
Fridays = Nonstress test for baby (heart monitoring for 20 minutes)

But, this week and next week we're doing them on different days, due to the holidays. Anyway, you get the gist of it.

Trying to relax so this baby doesn't come this week. Eating a ton of great food, as my mother in law is a wonderful cook! I am so happy to eat good, edible food again. In fact, I had waffles last night, and then woke up at 6 am ready to eat again...


Miss Madison has a fun time playing in her food...


Mmmm...spaghetti...if you can't tell... :)

Why she always tries to go in between furniture to get somewhere, I'll never know...

What's this sly look on your face??

Since this is my version of a journal, I just want to remember how cute your wet hair looks after your bath...


And this is when it dries right away! It's all over the place!


I love my Willow Tree Nativity set - my mom started it for me and each year, Elaine adds a new piece to it.

Hunter, here we are at 34 weeks along! You're getting big! Ok, I'm getting big, too.