IT's A Girl....For Sure!!!

 I had to run to Peoria to return some things to Toys R Us and it was a good excuse to have another ultrasound to verify the gender of Baby #7.  Trisha offered to keep Eden for me which was awesome because last time she was not very cooperative. This ended up being one of the best ultrasounds ever.  I had been saying to Jeremy earlier that I feel this baby move ALL the time and have been for a few weeks now.  A lot of women don't even feel their babies move until about 20 weeks or so.  But, I have read that the more kids you have had the earlier you can feel it.  Anyway, this baby is Active with a capital A.  When we got there we literally walked right in.  They are awesome there.  She remembered us and was so, so nice and gave us some 3D time as well!!  They usually wait until the babies are a little further along before doing the 3D because they are still forming at this point and a little alien-esque.  But, whatever.  Pretty much as soon as she started the ultrasound she said yep, still a girl!  Woot!  Then it was so hard to get a still image of her because she would not stop moving!! haha!  She waved , sucked her thumb, hid her eyes, rolled, kicked, everything.  I don't remember any other baby moving SO much during and ultrasound.  As a result, some of the 3D images are blurry or look like she has two heads because she would not hold still for us!  The lady there printed out a crap ton of pictures for us and gave us a disc too, loaded with all these images.  Enjoy!  

Doctors Galore!

On Friday, I got a call from the Carthage Middle School from Tristan.  He had a severe ear ache in both ears and wanted to come home.  I had to quickly get Eden and myself bundled up and out to the car.  We walked into the office and he was very upset and in a lot of pain.  I took him home and called Dr. Smith who told me that I should take him to the emergency room. Poor Tristan was just screaming in pain.  I remember having an ear ache like that once and I thought I was gonna die.  That was before I had experience natural childbirth, lol!  Anyway, the E.R. got us right in and they started doing tests on him.  Eden was not doing well in the hospital environment so luckily Jeremy came to get her pretty quick.  The tests all came back as inconclusive.  They said he could have strep or he couldn't so they were going to treat it like he did.  They gave him two prescriptions for pain pills and a z-pack.  As soon as he got those pain meds in him, he felt a million times better.  That night we also had Asher's Christmas program so Jeremy ended up staying home with most of them and I took Asher and Cullen.  Asher did great but, I will blog about that later.

I took Eden to her three year check up with Dr. Smith last week too.  He wanted to refer her to a pediatrician because of a few different things.  She seems to have sensory issues, her speech isn't where it needs to be, she missed a couple of milestones, and her staring episodes which could be seizures.  So I had to be to Dr. Talbot in Quincy this morning at 9am with Eden.  I really, really liked the new doc.  She was very patient with Eden and listened to everything I had to say.  Then she told me that things were going to get even busier for me! lol!  I would be waiting on four phone calls from four different doctors to check everything out with Eden.  One is a pediatric neurologist to run an EEG on her to see if she is having seizures or any other abnormalities with her brain.  Two, a childhood developmental/behavioral doctor.  Three, an audiologist to do all kinds of checks on her ears to see if her ears are working correctly.   And fourth, a speech therapist to start asap to work with her on her speech.  GAh!  This is slightly overwhelming and scary and all kinds of things.  But, we are going to work it all out.  One step at a time.

Then Eden and I went to Kmart to pick an online order up.  Then to Hobby Lobby for the world's beat wrapping paper.  And finally to McDonald's for fra-fries!  Now I am home for an hour before I have to head to Nauvoo to take Asher to scouts.  He has to bring snacks today.  I totally meant to make something but forgot last night and then couldn't this morning so, store bought snacks it is.  I guess Cullen and Eden and I will drive around for a couple of hours until Asher gets done.  I wish it weren't so darn cold and snowy, then we could go to the park.

Oh My!

I am seriously addicted to Zulily.com.  Everything I have ever bought there is always way better than I expected and at such a great price!!  Every morning I can't hardly wait until after 8:00am when my email comes with the new sales for the day!  The ONLY downside is that it does take a little longer than most places to get to me but, for the price and quality, I can sacrifice quick shipping, I guess!

Huge Belly

Well, my stomach is getting huge.  Like really huge.  I will be 17 weeks in two days. I guess I should take a picture.  I feel this baby moving all the time now.  Still having headaches pretty much nonstop.  I'm starting to freak out that I am running out of time.  We don't have room for another kid.  I guess we are going to remodel after the new year.  I don't know if we can get someone to do it in January/February or if we will have to wait until Spring or what.  But, something has to happen.  We are thinking that it will also add value to our house for when we sell it.  It will be a 5 bedroom/2 bath then.  And my laundry room won't be in my living room which also means that my living room will be bigger!  That is a plus.  Mostly, I need a second bathroom before I lose it one of these days.  There is always a line or if your in the shower, there is usually someone taking a crap while your showering.  It's really nice.  And if we all get sick again at the same time like that......I don't even want to talk about it. 
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Sick and Tired

Yes, we all look sick and tired here because we were!!  haha!  But, snuggling is one of the best remedies there is.  I had also just finished reading Allegiant and cried my brains out.  The kids thought I was nuts.  Cedric is reading it now, so I think he will soon get why I was crying.  I am excited for Divergent to come out in theaters and hope they do the book series justice. 

Thanksgiving Day

 Well, with all the sickies in our house for Thanksgiving, I didn't know what kind of meal I could actually pull off all by myself.  But, I really surprised myself!  The day before, in between taking care of people, I made a custard and a pecan pie.  I also tried a new cranberry salad recipe out that I hoped everyone liked because it made a TON!  

We woke up Thanksgiving morning and I put the turkey in the oven.  I had bought a oven-ready turkey that cooked in a bag to save any extra hassle for myself.  Then I started peeling potatoes and all that fun prep work.  

One of my favorite childhood memories was my Dad calling all of us kids from around the house to come watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on television.  My dad was big into musicals and they always feature all kind of broadway musicals as the parade goes on.  So, Jeremy and I made a tray of cheese, crackers, and summer sausage to snack on and egg nog to drink and called all the kids to watch.  All the kids love that kind of snack food. Some of them were not interested which was irritating but, what can you do.....mostly it was Tristan.  Cullen was enthralled the entire time!! Santa brings up the end of the parade and Matt Lauer kept saying that Santa was coming....Cullen was SO excited!  I LOVE his age right now!  I always think this is the best age for the "magic" of Christmas. 

 My messy little lady watched quite a bit of it too and always tried to sing along to every song!  I LOVE that she does that! 

 A little after noon, I had the dinner done.  It was A LOT of work but, everyone seemed to really enjoy it.  We had turkey, mashed potatoes/gravy, corn, noodles, cranberry salad, sweet potatoes, stuffing, rolls, egg nog, punch, and ginger ale. It turns out that the cranberry salad is a new family tradition!! It was the hit of the day and everyone ate the heck out of it.  Cedric snacked on it for a couple of days after too! The ones who had been sick ate kinda sparingly at our first go around.  But, at supper time we ate it all again and everyone got their fill!  

 We lounged, napped, played games, and watched movies all day.  It was AMAZING!  Everyone was very mellow and happy.  

 Midafternoon I had to turn on the Sound of Music.  One, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE musicals and this one is a classic.  Two, again it reminds me of holidays growing up with my family and my Dad.  Three, it really is the story of my ancestors, The Von Trapp family from Austria.  It is such a compelling and fascinating story.  The kids all seemed to enjoy it too!  

Side note:  I am freaking STOKED about the live version being done on t.v. tonight with Carrie Underwood and Stephen Moyer (True Blood)!!! I will have to record it because tonight is also Asher's Christmas program but, I cannot wait!!!  I was worried when the announced that Carrie Underwood would be playing Maria because of her country twang.  But, I watched an interview with her and she said the first thing she had to do when she started rehearsals was have a vocal coach come in to help her get rid of her twang! Sweet!  And the second I heard Stephen Moyer was going to be Captain Von Trapp, I knew he would be brilliant.  Anyway, end aside. 

Cullen wanted to snack on cereal and poured himself a bowl of Lucky Charms...without milk to sit and snack on.  Well, it was the last of it so he poured all the dust at the bottom out too and was shoveling it into his mouth!  haha!  He made a big mess but, we didn't care.  It was Thanksgiving after all!  

We ended up having one of the BEST holidays that we have had in long time.  And we loved just staying home with our family.  It was so special.  We may have to do this more often.  And skip out on all the extra traveling and extended family parties.

Pest Problem Solved

After finding the mouse and what not we called Reliable Pest Solutions out of Macomb.  They were here within 24 hours to check out the house and give us an estimate.  The guy that came over was super professional and very friendly.  He was NOT a high pressure salesman which I really appreciate in a sales person!  But, we decided to do the initial mouse treatment which treats both the outside and inside of the house, plus two follow ups.  Their work is guaranteed so if it doesn't solve the problem they come back free of charge.  But, we went ahead and signed up for their Home Solution Plus (or something like that) program where your entire house is treated for every creepy crawlie known to mankind every 84 days.  So, it will pretty much make sure that I won't see any varmits around here ever again!  haha! I can sleep SO much easier now!  Well worth the money in my book.

Our Advent Calendar

 Mark and Karina got us this advent calendar one year for Christmas.  The kids have been obsessed with it ever since.  It's another fun tradition we have here at our house.  Each day after school a different person gets to open the door that corresponds with the day.  There is a little note saying what cool things we will be doing that day!  

The first day it said "We are going to decorate our Christmas tree!" but, I didn't get a picture of that one.  The second day was Hang lights up in their bedrooms! They were really excited about it!  We were only able to get Liam and Cedric's lights up though because Asher got in trouble and Cullen fell asleep.  We did something else tonight so we didn't get them up tonight either but, will will tomorrow for sure!  

Rufio Tater is Back!

 Our Elf on the Shelf arrived at our house on December 1st again this year!!  

We had the youngest four in the car and told them that we had a visitor waiting at home.  Liam said "Oh, I know who it is.  It is that elf.  He is creepy!"  Jeremy and I laughed and said "Yep!"  Asher added: "He is so creepy, I'm going to punch him in the face!"  Bahahahaha!  We all laughed so hard!!  The elf itself isn't the cutest thing in the world, they definitely could have done a better job with it but, the funny things he does and the fun little treats or gifts he leaves makes up for it with the kids.  They all love to be the first to find him each morning!  So, he arrived this year with Powdered donuts and Donut holes!  The kids loved that!  We ate the treats and read the stories.  There is a page in the book that you are supposed to fill out with his name and when the tradition started and what not but, for some reason we didn't get that filled out last year.  So, none of us could remember his name.  Luckily, I have  blog, and type this kind of stuff down!! haha!

The next morning Cullen found him clinging to the Syrup....it is one of the elf's food groups after all!!  Let the good times begin!!

Sarah's Baby Shower

 

Way back at the beginning of November, Vicki and I threw a shower for Sarah at the Ivy Bake Shoppe in Ft. Madison.   When Sarah told us she was pregnant, I said that I called throwing the shower!! LOL!  But, what I didn't know then was that I would be in the early stages of pregnancy myself when throwing the shower.  My whole attitude and ambition faded and sickness, headaches, and moodiness took their place, haha!  I still had a TON fun doing it but, I went a much more low-key route than I would have went if I was feeling full of energy and not sick.  Oh well,  I think it ended up going awesome and it was cute, quaint, and went very smoothly.  

Above is the invite that I had done on Etsy.  Sarah doesn't know if it was a girl or a boy so I went with yellow and bumblebees to be neutral.  It was super cute, I think!

The Ivy catered it all (except the bumblebee cupcakes which Vicki and Joanne did....and were perfect as usual!) and we ate veggie quiche, twice baked potatoes, fresh fruit, muffins, pastries and of course, The Ivy's signature desert trays!  Yummy!  And we got a whole room to ourselves as well. 

I made a few centerpieces for the tables but, somehow I had five or six balloon bouquets and only ended up with a picture of one or two....where the heck did I put the other ones!?!? LOL!  They were on the other side tables and I didn't take pics there I guess.

  Sarah arrive dressed to match the theme and didn't even know it!  Doesn't she look cute with preggo belly??  

 Some of the centerpieces. 

 The cupcakes. 

 My "games" were rather low-key as well.  I ordered two Baby Shower games from another seller on Etsy that were more memories for Sarah and Matt than actual games.  One was a card that had Baby Mad Libs on it that I am going to laminate and put in a book for Sarah and Matt to read while she is in labor....you know, to keep her laughing!?  haha!! I read through a couple of them and they are pretty funny!!  And speaking of which, I actually need to get it done because before long she will be having the baby!  :) 

The other "game" was a Wishes for Baby Card.  This one I am also going to laminate and put in a book for them.  Probably the same book as the Mad Libs.  Anyway, I thought it would be something she could look back on and have memories rather than a silly game!  And it was all my poor pregnant brain could do right then! 

 She got lots of cute stuff for the baby and there were quite a few laughs,

 smiles, and sweet moments. 

 Vicki had been working on these quilt squares for over 20 years!!!  But, just never actually got a quilt put together.  Well, now she found the perfect thing to finish it for...her new grandbaby!!  She made her an adorable baby quilt and a quilted bag to go with it!  

 Isn't it pretty??

 Cheryl Tripp got Vicki a Grandma Gift...a firetruck duck to cover the bath faucet with!! 

 One without me.....

One with me.  I hope Sarah really liked it!! I woke up with a terrible headache that day and it just wouldn't stop.  Vicki, Joanne, and Sarah's other Grandma, Bobbie, met me at the Bake Shoppe to help set up. We finished blowing balloons up and making centerpieces and got the tables and banner ready. Thank goodness they helped out, I felt flustered and my head wasn't working properly!  I had a great time but when I got home about 2pm or so, I fell asleep on the couch until about 7pm! 

Well, she is due January 15th!  She could go on January 14th and have it on my Dad's birthday!! That would be so cool! 

I got her a Boppy and a Boppy cover.  I gave my breastfeeding schpeel!  lol!  She is definitely breastfeeding so that is awesome!! What a good Mama!!