31 Weeks

I'm in the home stretch now...

As much as I'm looking forward to meeting my sweet girl, I am soaking up this time together with Sam.  Things are going to change forever all too soon, so I'm really trying to appreciate our current "normal."

Sam sings and talks to "Baby Lucy" all the time and seems excited for her to come.  He even told me this morning he thought she was coming now, and he could see her in my belly button.  I absolutely love this age, and this boy, and this life I'm living.  

One notable characteristic of this pregnancy is my "nesting" instinct.  It's INSANE!  It keeps me up at night thinking about all the things that need to be cleaned, organized, sanitized, painted, stained, sold, bought, set up, and decorated in the next nine weeks.  This past weekend, Michael and I moved and rearranged furniture (well, mostly Michael) so I could deep clean the bedrooms.  I have purged and merged closets, donated a van load of stuff to Goodwill, and vacuumed every surface of our home... including the ceiling.  This little one has no idea how perfect I want this nest to be when she arrives.

I've started having a few Braxton Hicks contractions in the last day or two.  At first, I didn't know what I was feeling since I didn't experience these with Sam.  Whenever I am overdoing it, here they come to remind me to slow it down a bit.  They are not really painful, just enough to get my attention.  Water and rest seem to make them go away every time.  

Here's another belly picture comparison, sans makeup this time.  I'm not sick, I just seem to look that way in the photo.  

                                      30 Weeks - Sam                                 31 Weeks - Lucy

Happy Heart Day!

Little man had a special Valentine's Day surprise waiting on him when he woke up this morning.  Kimmie and Pawpaw and Uncle Drew sent some sweet Valentine cards.  Mo brought Sam his very first box of chocolates.  And, since Momma is a reading teacher, Sam got a book too.  Surprise, surprise.

I had also been saving these super great t-shirts for just such a day as Valentine's Day.  These "Love Big" t-shirts were a fundraising event to help our friends, The Brown Family, bring home their newest member from Korea.  We are praying hard and loving big for you guys, today!  

Hurry home Nell!

By the time my little valentine made it home from school and library day, he smelled just like a cupcake, had blue lips from his most recent sucker, and had a bunch of sweet valentines to show off from his buddies at school.  I think he's a big fan of Valentine's Day.  

Lucy's First Photo

I had to go for another ultrasound today to get some additional shots of baby girl's heart and umbilical cord.  This time around, she was very cooperative and gave us all the camera angles we needed, including this one... I already love that sweet face so much!

The ultrasound tech did ask me, "When are you due again?" and "How tall is Daddy?" while she was taking measurements of her.  I know inference when I hear it... she's a big girl.  She's actually measuring in the 87-90% percentile and has some very long legs.  Tell me about it!  She may have a future in ballet, which makes Momma happy!

Snow Day

One of the perks of being a teacher is the highly-coveted SNOW DAY.  For the past couple of years, the "schools are closed" snow day has been a bit hard to come by.  However, we were blessed with just such a day.  A day to snuggle the kiddo, sleep late, stay in our pajamas all day, and spend some quality time together.  We may have decided it was such a special day that we needed to make a run to the grocery store for a special Woody apple juice and giant blueberry muffins...

We actually didn't get any snow at our house until the next day.  It wasn't long before Anamana and the boys showed up at our back door ready for some fun in the snow.  They walked over through the school yard, gathering snow as they came, in hopes of building a snowman...

It was Sam's first time to actually do any real playing in the snow, and he was a big fan!  We built a great snowman with apple eyes, and ping-pong ball nose, and a plastic plate mouth!  The boys were super impressed with their work.  We finished just in time to run inside, dry off, drink some hot chocolate, and admire our handy work.