Basement

Ah we can walk around our basement finally!!! Woo hoo! For almost 2 years we've been saying "we're going to clean and organize the basement" Yeah well lets just say our motivation deserted us every time we ventured down the stairs! Lol Sooooo yesterday we buckled down and forced ourselves to find the basement! We still have work to do however we made a heck of a dent and we're pretty proud so we thought we'd share the photo's!

Basement before:



After one day:

Raise me up!

Hello everybody! Things are just ticking right along for us over here! I just got my review at work which went really well, got a very nice bonus and raise so we're going to go celebrate with Olive Garden next Saturday! 'Course the bonus has already been earmarked for things so that won't last long lol. :-) Dana's been checking out video camera's so I'm sure we'll be choosing one of those soon and I'm going to go get some maternity t-shirts now that it's finally been warm enough to need them!

Pregnancy is going great, Karalee's heartbeat was at 142 last appointment so she's staying very steady with her rate. My uterus growth is right on for my dates putting us at 30 weeks, can you believe in about 2 months she'll be here? It's very exciting! We have our baby business class next month where we'll pre-register at the hospital and get to tour the maternity/labor area's so I'm looking forward to that. We'll also aim for a child birth class so we have some idea of what to expect which I hope will be interesting and informative. Karalee is head down facing my back which I'm told is a good position so I'll be able to avoid back labor, we shall see! :-)

Here's the 30 week belly shots. I wanted to get some pictures of my work to show you guys but the batteries in the camera died so I'll have to take those next week. It's a beautiful historic home and I really enjoy working from there.






My Aunt and Grandma on my mom's side had quite a blast shopping for Karalee! Here's a few pics of the goodies she's gotten the last few days, including my "tricked out stroller" as Dana calls it lol.

Stroller-This is such a cool stroller! What kid wouldn't love to ride in this?!?!


Snoopy Switch Plate Cover-It's just too cute! Love it!


Baby Einstein Activity Mat-All the mom's I talked to said this was fantastic


Infant/Toddler Rocker-I love how it will last through 2 stages for her!


Ducky Towel and Bottles


Snoopy Bib


We got a beautiful night stand too but we haven't put that together yet so you'll have to wait for pics on that!

These pics are just some of the things Karalee got for Christmas from Dana's parents

Toy Hamper w/Assortment of Toys


Snoopy Lamp-It's low light so you don't have to wake the baby up when you go in, we have two since Dana also got one for his little girl. :-)


Hippo Activity Mat-Can't have too many options


Snoopy Night Light-This and the switch plate cover are two of my favorite items on the wall!


This is a newborn diaper, Dana's boss gave him a big bag of these since his son had already outgrown them, can you believe how tiny it is?

Belly on up

Here are the 29 week belly shots, those are my new maternity jeans that I purposely bought too big so I had room to grow! :-)

Christmas is officially DONE!

Yes you read the correctly! FINALLY we were able to take down the outdoor Christmas lights and decorations!! I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am they are down before Valentine's Day! Darn snow kept everything buried or frozen solid so we couldn't get anything taken down until the past weekend! Even then it took me pouring hot water on some ice before it let lose the decorations! Dana was a champ and helped out our friend next door take down the decorations we could get to so we all feel better now that we can see our houses again!

I passed my glucose test with flying colors so I'm very very happy about that! Far as the tests are concernd I'm normal, although we all know that to be questionable! Wink wink I'm so glad because I was not looking forward to the idea of having to kill 3-4 hours on a longer test!

Big news is my Grandma lost something like 30-40 pounds and now weighs less then I do! We had a good laugh over our reversed roles here! Lol Have to catch up after Karalee is born! :-) Other news is my best friend is coming out in March so I'm very excited about that! Looking forward to waddling my way around town with him and seeing the sites! It's always fun to do that and of course he's challenged me to a belly contest, bring it on I got one to flaunt now! Hee hee

Dana and I had great fun picking on Max last night! We took crackers and put peanut butter on them, then placed them on Max's nose while we watched Max attempt to get them off. One of them Dana got placed just right that Max managed to not notice it was on his nose so Dana slid the entire thing down Max's nose until he could reach it! Needless to say it resulted in a dog covered in peanut butter! It was hilarious watching him try and figure out where the cracker was!

I discovered last night that Karalee does not like to be startled awake! I heard Max's tags rattling like crazy and in my sleep induced panic mode went flying from the bed-superman would be proud-thinking Max was having a seizure. So heart pounding I rush to the end of the bed and..........see Max scratching away at a particularly pesky itch. Sooooooo I clambor back into bed prepared to calm my pounding heart down and Karalee decides to pop me several times quite hard to say "Mom don't scare me! I did NOT enjoy that! Take this! And that! And some of this!" Ironically I was glad to know the peanut is gaining strength since she has never popped me that hard during "normal" events lol.

What else did I discover this weekend......ah yes. I discovered jury duty is major snore ville. I spent all day on Monday waiting to see if I was "juror" material and was asked a ton of questions but wasn't picked. Whew! I was glad about that! It is interesting though that here they ask people in the jury box questions and the people in the gallery-which is where I was-so that was kinda fun to hear people's responses. The judge and the DA tried to make everyone feel at ease by joking around with everyone and it worked, the defense attorney on the other hand was very business like and I think she lost a lot of people. Plus you add to the fact they gave us an hour and a half for lunch which she came back from at least ten minutes late! Grrr. Amazing that 35 potential jurors, the DA, and the judge can all be back in the specified time yet she can't quite manage it.

Alright I think that's enough for one night. I'm off to scrounge something up for dinner since little one is protesting and my tummy is saying "Feed me! I've only eaten everything in sight today so I surely must be empty!" Lol

Urine for it now

There's nothing quite like discovering you're wearing jeans that have been peed on when it's too late and you're at work. Anyone still wonder why I can not wait to find Sylvester a new home? Yes I'm sitting in my office with my little heater going to warm it up and what odor arises? Not roses, not chocolate, nothing pleasant. Instead I get Eau de cat urine by Sylvester. Pleasant it wasn't.

Had my last monthly doctors appointment yesterday and am now on the every two weeks schedule. Do you realize that in 12 short weeks, or 84 days if you're a by the day counter, I'm due to give birth! I think the panic brakes are kicking in where I go "Wait I'm not ready!!!" Course I'm looking forward to meeting my daughter but labor freaks me out more then a little. I'm hoping the 12 weeks (give or take) will help me relax.......... at any rate doctor said my growth uterus and weight wise (only gained 2 additional pounds this month thank goodness! Nothing compared to last months!) is right on target. Karalee's heart beat was at 142 which she assured me is normal for them to start dropping a bit in heart rate because they're getting so much bigger. Update from my newsletter by the way is she now weighs 2 pounds! Doctor also said she was head down at the appointment. Doctor also shared that my dark tummy line is starting........sob, I never noticed it and it's under the "shelf" of my tummy which is why. I guess some people noticed it in my pictures although I still don't really see it, 'course that's probably the denial part for me since I was really really hoping to avoid that line!

Karalee has discovered in the last couple weeks that it's great fun to get under mommy's ribs on the right side and hang out. Not much fun for mommy mind you but apparently a wonderful hang out spot for Karalee. :-) Today she decided to shred my left ovary because all day long I got this intermittent sharp cramp over there. Ah and lucky for me the best is yet to come as she's still a tiny little thing! Lol :-)

Here is the pictures from today at 28 weeks-I'm officially in the third trimester now! EEEK!!! Please if you notice a line don't tell me, I don't want to know! Lol :-)

The little things in life

So we upgraded our cable package yesterday and now have 155 channels to surf and "find nothing on" Lol :-) It's neat though because I discovered this morning I can watch Baby Story which I've heard so much about! It's basically a tv show that shows you two families and their story as well as the labor. It was so interesting and I did cry it was so amazing to see these little babies appear! Scary because of course it's painful and I'm not looking forward to that but to see your child after that was just the most beautiful thing!

Karalee is getting bigger and stronger every day! We get weekly updates from my pregnancy site so that's always interesting to read what's going on for our stage. I know her eyes are fully formed and she can recognize her daddy's and mommy's voices. :-) She doesn't move quite as often as I expected but she does move every day so I don't panic too badly hee hee. :-) This morning she must have stretched out because she got both sides of my tummy to move at the same time! She also gets around in there! She's nailed my ribs, my tummy and the lower area. Doesn't hurt yet but I hear it's coming! Lol I have found sitting isn't that comfortable since I feel like everything is pressing down on my rib cage but I think that has more to do with the uterus growth and weight then anything else. Dana has started to keep a watchful eye on his clothes in the closet as I discovered his old jeans fit me pretty well and I like to steal his shirts for more room! Lol I tease him that he has plenty of clothes to keep us both covered! Lol

Here's the 27 weeks belly shots (yes that is almost 7 months!) Yes those are Dana's old jeans I'm wearing, look out honey I may snag your new ones in a few months! Hee hee