Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday. Wednesday was the early meal with my parents and brother Andy and sister-in-law Aimee. It was held at my house but I didn't have to do any of the cooking! Not a bad deal at all! The girls LOVE turkey and pumpkin pie. (If they didn't love pumpkin pie I would question whether they are really mine...) Thursday morning we drove up to Duluth for Dan's side of the family's meal. This get-together included a lot more people and the girls ate well again. We are not a "Black Friday" family, so the day after Thanksgiving we hunted down our Christmas tree. Dan is a perfectionist so our tree is pretty nice. It's not up yet and I'm hoping it fits in our house!

Duluth actually got a good snowfall while we were there and the girls had an absolute blast playing in it. I was so happy because last year they were always less than thrilled in their snowsuits trying to maneuver  around. The biggest bummer with winter-time fun is getting them all ready to go play outside. Especially with me being not too agile with my belly. It's totally worth it to get some fresh air, though.

I'm 35 weeks today and feeling just fine. I just had another appointment a couple of days ago but I didn't learn anything new. Regular prenatal appointments are boring (in a good way). I'm big enough now where it's not easy to get off the floor but I'm still up and down all the time. The girls take no pity on me! I am still lucky with pregnancy being good to me. I'm not even sure if it's hitting me how close I am. The painting is done in the nursery so the girls' room is up next. Hopefully this weekend we can finish since it would be nice to finish before their 3rd birthday on December 9th.

Nap is so hit-or-miss right now! I HAVE to be in the room if I want them to fall asleep and lately it takes about 45 min or longer for them to all fall asleep. Then, they'll sleep for too long and will have a big party at night until 9 or 10. They seem to be on the cusp of how much sleep they need and it seems like I have to choose: a break during the day or an earlier bedtime. If they skip a nap I still need a break, but they get into total mischief if I leave them alone in their room for "quiet time". (Clothes/nap diapers off, mattresses off the cribs, making a total mess with toys and clothes.)

Tidbits of the girls...

-Lately, they have been asking about all their toys and books and who bought them. It's good practice for me to remember, but the funniest one was when they asked who bought them! Ummm, isn't it too early to be asking these kinds of questions!? Haha!

-They totally are into Santa, Rudolph, Frosty the Snowman, etc. I'm pretty sure if we go meet Santa again we'll have the same reaction as last year, however (all-out bawling?) It's fun to relive being excited about Santa coming and just the magic of Christmas again. It's so different as a parent, but so fun!

-One time I couldn't find one of their favorite books at bedtime. Dan was at the cabin hunting so I told them that daddy took it to the cabin because he wanted to read it at night (Dr. Seuess' The Thinks You Can Think). It's pretty humorous picturing Dan reading it at night in bed with a flashlight. So now, any time we can't find something they think daddy took it to the cabin or to work. Oooops!

Blogger told me that I ran out of room for photos. I'm not sure if this is a glitch or really true, but here is a link to Flickr to show the pictures I was going to include.

This is all for now... have a great rest of the week, everyone!

Checking in!

It's been too long since I last updated. Not much has been happening around here besides my tummy getting bigger. I'm already 31 weeks and still feel pretty good. I passed the gestational diabetes test at my 28 week appointment! The last couple of days it has been getting harder to breathe deeply and after a long day I feel sore. Sometimes I feel painful twinges that I'm assuming is sciatica (nerve pain). Nothing I can complain much about though. I'm so much smaller than last time still.

The guest bedroom set is already out of the nursery and in the bedroom downstairs, so after we paint (hopefully soon!) we will put one of the girls' cribs in there and swap in a toddler bed borrowed from cousin Peter. We also want to paint the girls' room too. The next three weekends are deer season, then it's Thanksgiving, then we're into December! Looks like painting will be a weeknight project, not a weekend one. THEN, I have to start washing/organizing baby boy clothes! (Lara has lent me a ton of clothes...I won't really have to buy much at all)

The girls still enjoy their weekly ECFE class. Of course they are more the observers than the participants when it comes to circle time (songs, movement/dances, etc). I really like their teacher, and the teacher loves to observe them. They are starting to warm up to the teachers and will actually talk to them a little. She said that when it comes time for songs or dance games, they look at each other as if to decide whether they will participate or blow it off. They really operate as a unit. This can work to my advantage or my disadvantage. If I see one run off in public I know the others will follow (big disadvantage unless they all run the same way then it's not too bad). A positive from this is if one is trying a new food or doing really well at dinner, the others will usually follow suit. They have such a special, unique bond at such a young age. Another example is when one gets hurt, the others will ask the hurt one if she's OK and if she needs a kiss. I cannot even imagine how their bond will grow even more in the future!

Josie

Madeline

Sofia

Halloween was fun! The girls have worn their costumes a lot in the last couple of weeks. Josie as a cat, Madeline as a cow, and Sofia as a dog. (The cat costume is actually a jaguar and it dates back to Dan's toddler years! Dan's grandma Peterson sewed it and siblings and cousins all wore it for Halloweens!) It has been hard to get them to take off their costumes to eat, sleep, play outside, etc. Last night as we were finally getting them dressed to go trick-or-treating, Josie decided she wanted to be a dog! All this time she has been obsessed with wearing her cat costumes and cats in general. All of a sudden she wants to be a dog!? Sofia protested at first, but then just gave her costume to Josie on her own free will. Thank you, Sofia, for keeping the peace!

Sofia, Josie, Madeline (they all chose a pumpkin face from a bunch of pictures on Google images...) Don't mind Dan in the reflection in the window.

     Last year for trick-or-treating, we pulled the choo-choo and they walked a little, but this year they walked the whole way. We even got to more houses than last year! It just cracks me up watching them. This is how it went most houses:
*Attempt to ring door bell- NOPE still too short!
*Say a "trick or treat" that is actually audible- too bad no one has opened the door yet...
*When the door opens, Josie usually quickly turns around and tries to bolt...
*Sofia and Madeline slowly back up giving no regards to potentially falling off the front step (luckily we were there there to catch them if they got too close)...
*Refusal to let them put candy in their bag- they HAD to take it and do it themselves...

*Awkward leaving... Love this age- too funny! 

        At one house, the husband and wife were sitting on their front porch wearing masks of the dwarves from Snow White. You couldn't see any of their face. We were like, "Oh, this will go over real well!" There was no crying (surprising!), but they would NOT take candy from them. I guess that's kinda smart of them! The "dwarves" ended up just handing me the candy to give to them. I can't imagine if they were wearing actual scary masks. We probably would have had to skip that house.

On a mission! Those bags are getting heavy!

One their way to candy!

Sofia, Madeline, and Josie after trick-or-treaing.

I just had to go to Target today to see what they had for clearance costumes. I was hoping to find another cat costume because I don't want Josie's cat costume to get too warn out since it is basically a family heirloom. :)   I found these and I'm afraid I created monsters! I've never been one to want to encourage the whole princess culture, but oh well! As long as they still like tromping around in the woods, all is good! When they put these costumes on, they were positively giddy. Twirling and bouncing around the house. I'm afraid they won't want to ever take them off...

Hope you all have been well!

Sofia is a mermaid, Josie is a fairy, and Madeline is Snow White!