Merry Christmas!

First I have to apologize for going so long without an update. December has been a busy month for us and although I am happy to report that a lot got accomplished, some did not...one of those things being sending out Christmas cards this year. SORRY! I have been busy crafting up some Christmas presents all while trying to finish sewing Sadie's bedding and getting the house and gear ready for a baby. It has taken a lot of my time and energy. (which I don't have a lot of at this point) Our tree is up, our stockings are just about ready to hang (finally!) 90% of the presents are wrapped and all of the holiday meals are planned and grocery shopped for. We are just about ready.
Kristin is done with school for 2 weeks and for the first time in 5 years she will not be traveling this Christmas season. We are happy to have her here with us for the entire Christmas break.
Jenna still doesn't quite "get" Christmas...I was trying to talk to her about Santa and baby Jesus yesterday and she is a little lost with the whole thing, but I am sure when it comes time to tear into the Christmas presents she will know just what to do.
Poor Jason, like most years he has the least number of presents under the tree. I told him that anything that has come into the house for him in the last month has been wrapped so he will be getting new socks and a pineapple for Christmas. :)
My family is together this year with the exception of me. Sorry Jared and Terra! We're hoping we have a better shot at being out west next Christmas.
Sadie is still cooking away...as she should be at this point. I have a Dr's appointment tomorrow morning so I am anxious to check on her again, but don't expect her to make her appearance for at least another 3 weeks. I am quite uncomfortable at this point, but I want a healthy baby vs an early baby so I am trying to remind myself that I am almost done.
We feel very blessed this year, we are healthy, comfortable, and loved and we hope the same for each of you this season and throughout the year. Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!
-Love Jason, Melissa, Kristin, Jenna & (Sadie)

Happy Birthday Jenna!

My baby turned 3 December 4th. We took lots of pictures since family and friends are so far away. Here is what you missed:

33 weeks

Kitty Litter Cake

We made this for a party Jason was going to. It was fun to make and looked disgusting! You can find instructions here:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Kitty-Litter-Cake/Detail.aspx

Trip to the Zoo

Trick or Treat!!

There are more pictures of Jenna because she had to get dressed up 3 times and Kristin only dressed up twice.

Pumpkin Patch & Corn Maze

I'm not so good at this updating business

My ultrasound was fine, Sadie was not cooperative and she covered her face with her little hand when they tried to take a picture, so unfortunately I have no photos to share, but the good news is they saw what they needed to see on ultrasound, so the placenta and the umbilical cord are just as they should be. The only ongoing issue at this point is the Gestational Diabetes, which I am not officially diagnosed with at this point, but not officially cleared of either.

The results of my week of 4x a day finger sticks was good enough to reduce the number of finger sticks per day, but not good enough to stop altogether. I am now doing 2 finger sticks a day will report my results tomorrow. I have met with a nutritionist so I know what kind of diet they want me to follow if I am diagnosed, but since I am not, I have a hard time finding the motivation to alter my eating habits. I would like to say that I expect to be able to update the status of the situation soon, but after waiting all week for a phone call that never came, I am not getting my hopes up this time around. I take solace in knowing that my numbers are low enough that they do not justify further monitoring at this point and that the baby is healthy, now if I could just quit having to stab my little fingers things would be much better.

Other than that, the 3rd trimester is what I expected it to be so far, sore ribs, trouble breathing since the baby is now infringing on the space my lungs need, and a heck of a time trying to get comfortable. I put my hair in a bun yesterday and Jason was kind enough to comment that he thought I looked like a ballerina, which was sweet...then he added "from the neck up!" We laughed at the thought of me...the awkward ballerina so I thought I would share a picture of how I am feeling at this point:
Here's me at 29 weeks:
I can't figure out how to put the picture at the bottom of the post, so it is at the top.
-Melissa

October in review

Whew, I never intend do go so long between updates, but this has been a busy month so I will have to go with a brief overview this time around.

Jenna keeps me busy! She seems to be enjoying joy school which is every Tuesday and Music Makers (our ward toddler group) every Friday. She seems to take a few minutes (more like 10-15) to get comfortable enough to join in, which doesn't work out very well when we are only there for an hour to begin with. We are still making slow progress with the potty training, but I am bound and determined to not have two in diapers so I have my work cut out for me over the next 2-3 months. Jenna is cooperative in the sense that she will sit on the potty without complaining when we tell her to, but she has yet to have any consistency in telling us when she needs to.

School is keeping Kristin busy...I don't know how we will ever have time to fit in any activities or clubs someday, a regular school day and homework is keeping her tied up from about 7 am to 5 pm daily. We will be going in for parent teacher conference on November 11, so we are anxious to get an assessment of her progress from her teachers perspective. She still has a difficult time staying focused, but her reading speed has improved a lot so she always seems to be making progress in one area when another is giving her trouble...the biggest obstacle right now is timed math tests...she knows the answers, but she doesn't do much of anything fast, let alone math facts. At any rate, we are happy with her determination.

I just finished my last general class!! Woohoo! So it only took me 10 years, but I am now 7 classes away from my bachelors degree. I had intended to finish by the end of next year but that may be delayed a month or two so I can focus on the baby without school hanging over my head. I am keeping busy working on crafts that I intended to make for Christmas last year and never finished so I am now attempting to finish in time for Christmas this year. I am also working on Sadie's bedding when I have a spare moment, but that is rare. In the mean time, I am now in charge of our wards craft group, so I have been teaching/helping twice a month and trying to come up with ideas for future months. This month was tutu's and wands, I will add pictures soon.

Jason is busy with his two classes he is in right now and my honey do list which now includes requests such as -can you please pick that up off the floor for me and will you help me find my tums? He is a good helper.
Anyone who knows Jason knows that he loves Christmas, but now that he is an adult he has a hard time holding back from playing with his new toys until society says he can, so I never can surprise him for Christmas. He is getting a grand total of 3 presents and he knows about every one of them. :( We bought him a bowflex off craigslist which is now set up in the middle of my craft room. He is happy with it, but he is definitely now waiting until Christmas to use it. Not much else to report for Jason right now...just working, going to school and working with the teachers at church...same old same old...

Now for the baby update...at my last appointment the Dr that I saw recommended a repeat ultrasound...she said that in my first ultrasound they had a hard time determining if the umbilical cord had the correct number of arteries in it. Then she ordered my lab work, which included my 1 hour blood glucose test. My ultrasound will be tomorrow and I am anxious to see the baby again.
I was told to eat an atkins style breakfast the morning of my blood glucose test, so I did...I got a phone call later that day that my levels were elevated, I did not pass and I would now need to do the three hour blood glucose test. I'll admit I was not thrilled, but in an effort to look on the bright side I decided that I looked forward to the three hour test only because I never have a three hour stint with no kids, so I would bring a book and enjoy it. I was wrong...the 3 hour blood glucose test involves a total of 4 blood draws over about 4 hours. So 2 blood draws into the test and about 2.5 hours of wasted time later my body decided it would no longer tolerate the glucose solution and purged it...yuck. My test was over (incomplete) and I was sent home. I waited anxiously to find out what comes next and was hopeful that I would not have to do the three hour test again. The good news is, I did not have to repeat the three hour test, so I am not checking my blood glucose levels 4 times a day (read 4 finger sticks a day) for a week. My last day is tomorrow and then I report my levels and wait to find out what comes next. My next appointment with the Dr is November 3, so between the potential Gestational Diabetes and the repeat ultrasound I am anxious to find out how the baby is doing and whether or not I am in the clear health wise.
I will do my best to update promptly once I have some news.
I have lots of pictures to add from the month including halloween costumes and the pumpkin patch. So that will follow soon.
-Melissa

One more post...whew!

I don't update the blog as often as I should, so when I do I usually have a lot to add. I have been crafting up a storm lately and at Amanda's urging I have finally got my craft blog off the ground. It can be seen here: http://modestgoddessboutique.blogspot.com/

It is mostly just pictures at this point, but it shows some of the things I have made recently. I need to go back in and add descriptions, but don't have time now, so I'll work on that soon. I just thought some of you might like to see what I have made.
I have my next Doctors appointment on Monday so I will likely post again after that, but in the mean time, enjoy the weekend!
-Melissa

House Update

I *think* I posted a few months back about the rental that we are in being put on the market. We have a little update. The landlord emailed me last week asking if we would like to sign another year contract on the house. We let him know we would love to stay in the house, but we needed to have stability so if the house was going to go back on the market in the spring, we would have to look for something else. He said that with the market down they feel like they have lost too much to sell now and that they would like to continue to rent it until 2011 before putting it on the market again. We will live in the area until early 2011, so we are thrilled that we may be able to continue to live in this house the rest of our time here. He will officially take it off the market by the end of November, so I'm not counting it a done deal until then, but we are hopeful that this works beneficially for all involved so that Kristin can go to school without having to switch, we won't have to move all of our things again (especially while I'm pregnant) and we can enjoy the extra space that give us room for our expanding family. The house being on the market has been a stressful situation and we look forward to having a sense of stability again. I can't remember if I ever posted a picture of the house, so here it is:

Family Fun time

These three little words strike fear in my poor husband, but lucky for the girls and I, he is outnumbered. Here are pictures of this weeks "Family Fun Time" Kristin checked out a library book at school on Origami and we made an attempt to create a few things. We gave up on the hard stuff and ended up making bunnies and puppies. Jason looks miserable in the pictures, but I think even he had fun.

I spy with my little eye...something green!

There is a bug in this picture. Can you see him? This was taken in the flower bed in our front yard. For the record, this is one of the biggest bugs I have ever seen in real life that wasn't pinned to a board in a museum. He scared the crap outta me when I attempted to pull some weeds and saw him stroll by near my hand. I'm not sure if you can tell in the pictures, but he was carrying a cricket in his left paw. This quickly ended my gardening days...I think I'll wait until spring to try again.
-Melissa

Look Dad!!

I found this today at wally world and couldn't resist.
-Melissa

Making Stuff Part 2

I made this skirt for Jenna out of scraps I had left over from another project. I even did my own pattern! Of course it doesn't match the shirt Jenna is wearing but we were anxious to try it out for fit.
-Melissa