Home and Relaxing

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. We started off our holiday in Kansas City. We ate lots of food and then Samuel and I headed to Tulsa last Sunday. We spent the week in Tulsa. Tuesday night Jonathan and Laura came in town and then Dave arrived on Wednesday morning. We hung out all week, ate lots of food and just relaxed. I didn't change 1 poopy diaper the entire week. Dave also didn't have to give Samuel 1 bath. We were so lazy and it was much needed.

Samuel had a great time running around, playing in the leaves and getting all the attention.

We drove back to St. Louis on Saturday and continued our relaxation yesterday. I am now on the hunt for good deals and trying to do lots of holiday shopping. I just bought some stuff off of Amazon and now I am looking for baby sheets and decoration stuff for the new baby.

I have truly popped out, that is my belly. Now everywhere I go people notice that I am pregnant. I am starting to get a little uncomfortable. I only have 9 and a half weeks to go. I can't believe it. The time has really flown by.

I have lots of pictures below so enjoy:

I am delivering sweets to SSM Health because they bought my monthly desserts at the Woman's Place auction. I would love to have a sweets business, so if anyone is interested in getting homemade desserts let me know. Sweets by Sarah, the first dessert that was delivered: Homemade Carrot Cake with Butter Cream Frosting.

Taylor and Samuel had another craft day a few weeks ago and they made turkey hands. Here Samuel is in action:

Still loves sunglasses:

Samuel loves to get on Jonathan's shoulders:

A cute picture of Samuel and Laura, too bad Samuel has a mouth full of food:

The entire family in Kansas City:

Everybody is completely focused on Samuel. He better enjoy it while it lasts:

In Tulsa, eating oatmeal and blueberries, one of his favorite breakfast meals:

Leave playing with Savta:

Loves the shoulders:

Eating Taco Bueno, even Samuel loves the bean burrito:

Playing at the park:

Samuel's favorite part of Thanksgiving meal was the black olives:

Yummy food:

Resting up after the big meal in Savta and Papa's bed:

Laura and Samuel:

We actually didn't get any good pictures of Samuel with Dave and I. I guess we need to try to do that soon.

Holiday Goodness

On Saturday we went to Kansas City for an early Thanksgiving. The entire family in Kansas City, Tulsa and St. Louis were all there. I don't really remember the last time we were all together, so it was really nice. The food tasted so yummy and it started off my continuing food consumption early. I will try to post pictures later.

Samuel and I are now in Tulsa. We drove in yesterday and Samuel was a complete wild man all afternoon. I think he was sick of being stuck in the car for two days. We went on a walk yesterday evening and Samuel would not have anything to do with his stroller. So he ended up walking about a half of a mile. I finally had to wrestle him in his stroller because he wanted to keep walking, but he was so tired he was falling all over the place. The great part of him walking and running around is that was so exhausted by the evening. It is now 9 am and he is still asleep. I think another long walk is in the cards for this afternoon.

The best part about being in Tulsa right now is that George is not with us. I know it is really mean of me to say, but I am completely sick of her lately. For the past two weeks all she does every day is bark at me. She wakes up in the morning and starts barking. When I am eating breakfast, feeding Samuel, playing with Samuel, doing anything around the house and not petting her or paying attention she is barking. Not only is Samuel wearing me out, but so is George. I needed a break from her.

I am really excited about relaxing this week. I plan to eat lot of food, do some serious shopping, finish Dave's stocking and just relax.

The week is finally over

I have been pretty busy this week even though I felt like it took forever for this week to end. I had a doctor appointment on Wednesday. I have gained 23 pounds so far. I think that is pretty good for me. I feel huge and uncomfortable, but I really don't think I will reach the 48 pounds I gained with Samuel. Who knows though because the holidays are now here. The heartbeat for the baby ranged from 140 to 150. I still have no idea about a boy or girl. I can't wait for February to find out.

Speaking of the holidays, I baked all the cookies, pumpkin bread and fudge. It all looks so good. I can't wait to dig in tomorrow.

Only a couple more hours before I see New Moon. I can't wait. I will let you all know how it is, if anyone is interested. Dave and Samuel left about 30 minutes ago to head to Justin and Charisa's to hang out for a little while. Since they left I have cleaned up the kitchen and vacuumed the entire house. It is amazing how fast I can get things done when no one is around. I am going to get dressed and ready for my night out.

I think I have had about 3 nights out by myself since Samuel has been born. That is just super depressing. Dave and I have gone out together, but I haven't gone out really by myself. I could go on and on about the reasons, but I will get into that another day. I am way to excited to be FREE tonight.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Lots to do

I have had a pretty busy week this week. I have had appointments and more appointments. Today I have another doctor's appointment and I am pretty sure I gained at least 10 pounds since my last appointment. Everything has grown. My boobs are HUGE, my belly is getting bigger and my butt and legs have expanded beyond belief. I know I will get some type of lecture about my eating habits if I gained 10 pounds, but I am not worried about it. I have been eating really pretty healthy and exercising a lot, so whatever amount I gain it is because I need to.

I have a continuing legal education phone seminar this afternoon. I am hoping to run to the gym this morning, so I can also shower. Then I have errands to run before my CLE starts at 12.

I love John Mayer and his new cd came out this week, so I need to run and get that. What I am most looking forward to this week is my night out on Friday. I don't remember the last time I had a night out. Dave is going to be taking Samuel and I am going with Laura and my friend Cara to the movie New Moon. I am so excited I can't stand it. I know there will be tons of little teenage girls there and we will probably be the oldest there, that is not chaperoning their child, but I don't care. I am so excited.

Also on Friday I need to bake bake bake. We are going to Kansas City just on Saturday to have a Thanksgiving with my grandparents. I am baking a pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies and some fudge. I love this time of year and all the baking. All of those recipes shouldn't take too long to make. They are all very easy.

Have a great Wednesday.

Sleeping In

Before we had Samuel, we could sleep in until 9 at least, no problem. Then when we had Samuel at first we weren't sleeping at all and sleeping in was 5 am or 6 am. Samuel finally became a wonderful sleeper and normally sleeps until 7 or later. It is now 8:15 and he is still asleep and as you can see I am up. I have actually been up for the last hour and a half, wide awake. Why can't I sleep in? I really wish I could enjoy sleeping and relaxing in my bed, but once I start to stir, I can't stop thinking about things. I start thinking about what I need to do for the day, what we need to do for the house, are we going to sell our house, where are we going to move, what I am I going to buy for the baby room, what do I need to get done for the day, anyway the list goes on and on and I can't stop. It has been back this last week because I have been waking up and needing to go to the bathroom at around 5 and then I can't go back to sleep.

Last night we hung out with Charisa, Justin, Vance and Vaughn. Dave and I desperately needed a night out where we had adult time. The evening went by way too quickly for us. Samuel had a blast and ran and followed everything that Vance did. Samuel and ran after Vance so much that he broke out in a sweat. He fell asleep on the way home from their house and then didn't even move when we transferred him to his bed. So nice!

I spoke too soon. He is up. Dave is going to deal with him though. It is nice to have a weekend.

TGIF

I am so happy it is Friday. I am so ready for the weekend. I am taking George to the kennel today for some playtime. This entire week she has barked at me non-stop all day long and I am getting so sick of it. We have taken her on a few walks this week and paid a lot of attention to her, but I think she needs to get out. At least I will have a little peace and quiet at home for a little bit.

I had another dream last night about the baby and this time we had a boy. Here is the problem. Dave and I can't decide on a boy's name at all. Last time we could only think of boys names and not a girl's name. This time we have our girl name picked out (but we aren't telling, so don't even ask). The boy name is really hard this time. The names I like, Dave doesn't like and the names he likes I don't really like. We have a few that are contenders, but we don't love them. Any suggestions on boys names? I go back in forth between liking traditional names and unique names.

Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks. I have been really bad at downloading my pictures lately.

Samuel loves black olives. If he won't eat anything, we just have to pull out the black olives and he goes nuts. He likes to put them on his fingers and then eat them one by one.

My friend Andrea and her daughter Taylor and Samuel and I try to get together once a week to do something, anything to entertain the kids. A few weeks ago we thought it would be fun to decorate pumpkins. We forgot to take pictures while they were decorating, but they had a lot of fun. They both thought it was hilarious to put the pom-pom decorations on top of the pumpkin and let them fall off. The things kids find funny. Here are a few pictures of Samuel's finished product:

This week we were to a Dinosaur Exhibit at the Science Center. They are life size dinosaurs, that move and make noises. There is information about all the different eras when the dinosaurs lived and information about all the different kinds of dinosaurs. I found it very educational and super cool. Samuel is a little too young to appreciate the educational aspect of the exhibit, but he did really like looking at the dinosaurs. He is really into dinosaurs lately, so this was a perfect outing. He was really afraid of the tiny dinosaurs that were closer to his eye level. I thought he would be terrified of the T-Rex, but of all the dinosaurs he and Taylor were waving at that one. At one point Samuel just laid down on his belly and started up at the baby T-Rex. It was pretty funny. I tried to take some pictures, but the lighting wasn't the greatest and it was hard for me to get good ones.

Lastly, in the colder months I love wearing pashminas. I like really big ones that I can wrap around me a lot of times. Yesterday it was kind of cold out in the morning and we were about to head to Samuel's music class. I put on my pashminas and my jacket and got ready to go. Samuel went to the closet and started yanking on one of my pashminas. He started wrapping it around his head, so I fixed it for him. He refused to take it off. When we got in the car to go to music class, I tried to take it off and he wouldn't let me. He wore it into his class and then took it off when we got into the classroom. Then I thought he would have forgotten about it when we were leaving, but he insisted on putting it back on before we went outside. Not only did he wear the pashmina, but he had to bring his cell phone with him in the car, put on his sunglasses and he pretended to be talking on the phone the whole way to music class. He is my little boy. He just cracks me up. Here are some pictures of him:

Not another Monday

It feels like a Monday today and I am not liking it at all. Dave was off work yesterday for Veteran's Day and we were pretty busy all day. By 3 pm we were exhausted and bored. We went for a long walk, since it was pretty nice out and then the evening just dragged on. Lately when I workout, my lower back really starts killing me. The sciatic nerve pain is getting worse at night and it is really bad when I exercise. I figured I will do more on the elliptical machine because it is less pressure on my lower back.

So, I am really torn about whether to get the H1N1 vaccination. I know that my cousin Nicki who is pregnant was worried about this too and she just got hers, but I am just not sure. I have an appointment next week and I put it off last time and I just don't know what to do. My OBGYN originally wasn't suggesting that her patients take it, but I guess she changed her mind. She is recommending it, but not requiring it. She did make everyone in her office get the vaccination and no one has had any side-effects. Anyone else gotten theirs and did they have any side-effects?

Also, I haven't given Samuel his either. I am not against vaccinations, I just don't want to be giving him anything unnecessary. Anyone given their children the vaccination and were there any side-effects? His pediatrician also recommends getting it, but is not requiring it. He said he wasn't even sure if he was going to give it to his kids. I just don't know what to do.

Any opinions would be helpful.

Well, I was able to get this post done while Samuel was eating and now he is done and is pushing the table out of the way so I better go.