Christmas Part 1

Nick was working this year for Christmas, and being 35 weeks pregnant, we decided to stay here for Christmas and our family came up to see us.  We spent Christmas with just the three of us.  On Christmas Eve we went to our church service, which was awesome.  If you are looking around for a church home, definitely check out 121 Community Church in Grapevine.  We love it!  For dinner we decided to keep it easy and ordered a pizza, haha.  We spent the night reading "The Christmas Story" and we each got to open one present.  I have an amazing husband, who for my Christmas gift, turned my blog into books.  I love them, and the fact that I will have these to cherish for so many years.  These almost serve as baby books because they capture everything that is going on in their lives.

Christmas morning Santa visited and Mady got exactly what she asked for.  Presents and a car.  Of course she got the VW Beetle, since that's what I use to drive!  She was a little scared of the car at first when it started moving but she warmed up to it pretty quickly.   Now, if she can only figure out the whole steering part.  Nick didn't have to be at work until 10, so we had a great morning at home.  Then we met him at his office for lunch, and had a nice dinner at home, complete with a birthday cake for Jesus!

The next day was Christmas with Nick's side of the family.  His mom came up and spent a couple of days with us, and we had a lot of his family over for dinner one night.  Great times, and great memories were made!

The first gift of Christmas!

Santa came!

Coming down the stairs, Christmas morning

I think she likes it

Cruising down the driveway with Mickey

Happy Birthday Jesus

Loves her Frozen doll and dress from Aunt Ellyn

She had a blast with her Uncle John

And we are not done celebrating yet!  My parents are coming up today, as well as my aunt, uncle, and cousin from Mexico.  We are going to do our Christmas with them and spend New Year's together.  Love how the holidays bring everyone together.  When they leave, I will be 36 weeks, which means 4 weeks to due date!!

8 Months!

 Well somehow I am now eight months pregnant, and I feel it.  Sometime in the last week or so it's become hard to move!  Playing, picking up, and running after Mady has been like an Olympic event that leaves me exhausted by the end of the day.  The last couple of days I've taken a short nap while she naps, and if you know me, I don't take naps.

Heartburn came back with a vengeance but Prevacid has really helped and I feel much better now.  In spite of that, the most important thing is that Owen is doing great.  At my 32 week appointment we had another sonogram that showed his kidneys are still dilated.  They did show slight improvement, and it is a very mild case, so no need to be very concerned.  We'll have another sonogram at 36 weeks and go from there.

We spent the past month celebrating the Christmas season.  Mady really enjoyed it this year, and it was so much fun watching her just soak it all in and have fun with everything that goes along with Christmas.

Our first attempt at making a gingerbread house.  Ir cracked so we had to get another one :(

Delivering gifts to the neighbors

Cinderella Christmas at the Artisan Children's Theatre

Her first movie "Frozen", and she did great!

Of course we had to get the big tub of popcorn :)

Very successful trip with Santa

Loved the Christmas lights this year

Made Christmas crafts

Second attempt at a gingerbread house

You ate the snowman!

Looking good!

Finished product

Visit to Santa

We paid a little visit to Santa today, and this year was by far the best year!  She was so excited to see him, there was no crying, and we got some great pictures!

We're going to see Santa!

Telling him what she wants for Christmas "Presents and a car"

Iced In

This ice storm hit at a great time for me, because I was starting to get tired of running around all over the place!  This past week has been full of errands and school, so Thursday afternoon Mady and I got home from school, and the ice storm hit.  This was a great couple of days to stay home, slow down, and do a bit of relaxing.  We had some good times inside, watching movies, listening to music, making cookies, and Christmas crafts.  Definitely much needed!  We probably watched more TV than normal, but I'm confident it won't do any long term damage ;)

Now, I'll admit, I love being at home but I'm starting to get a bit of cabin fever.  Our roads are looking much better now that the ice is melting, so I think I'll venture out later for some dinner.  Plus,  I don't feel like cooking anymore!  Here are some pics from our iced in weekend:

We had Christmas movie night complete with new pajamas for everyone, popcorn, and hot chocolate

We ventured outside (but not for long, it was too cold!)

We made Gingersnap cookies

And we even decorated some snowmen

Overall, ice storm 2013 treated us well!

7 Months

A bit late, but I am now seven months pregnant.  Less than two months to go before our little one's due date, who has a name now, which will be Owen Gabriel Hampshire.  I have been feeling well for the most part, besides some back pain here and there and heartburn.  Nothing fun about your throat being on fire at 3 in the morning.  He is still moving like crazy and now that his space is getting a bit cramped, his movements feel so much stronger and sometimes even hurt me!  No general time during the day that he moves because this little guy is constantly moving and I wonder if he ever sleeps.  Right after Mady goes to bed is when he will really crank it up and start having a dance party.  It's like he knows that he now has our attention all to himself!

We spent Thanksgiving down in Port Arthur with our family, which was so nice.  We'll be spending Christmas up here, so that was our last trip down there for a while.  Mady always has such a fun time with everyone and the older she gets, the more fun she has.  The weekend after Thanksgiving I was in a wedding for one of my best friends from high school.  They don't make maternity bridesmaid dresses so I had to get a dress several sizes too big so that it would fit around my belly but then had to bring everything else in, haha.  But in the end it fit, and the wedding was beautiful!!

This past Monday, Nick had surgery on his back.  It went really well, and now he is recovering.  He's very limited in what he can do right now and it will be a gradual process before he's back to normal.  His mom came in to help us for a few days which was really helpful.

We took Mady's paci away a couple of weeks ago, and that has been her hardest transition.  We thought she was doing pretty well, but almost a week ago she started having a really hard time going to bed.  Now she is screaming to go potty when we put her down, even though she just went five minutes ago, and she won't go to bed until we take her.  She's also waking up three or four times in the night to go potty.  It's starting to wear on us but we're praying it's just a phase.

I won't lie, this past week has been a bit hard on this pregnant one, but we will get through it.  The Christmas season has started and we have so much to be thankful for.  During those times when I start feeling at my wit's end I turn to God.  He has a great way of changing my perspective and bringing peace over any situation.  This is also the first year Mady has really understood and started having fun with our Christmas activities so that has been fun to watch.  Looking forward to the next few weeks of celebrating Christmas!