Santa Pictures

Ok, last post today...sheesh....I am making up for lost time.  I have been so busy this month.  I haven't had a chance to update the blog, so now I am going nuts!  The weekend after Thanksgiving, we had our Christmas pictures taken with Be True Photography.  Now that my Christamas cards are out, I feel better posting these on my blog.  Although, I did spoil it a little for anyone who has Facebook!  Anywho, I think they turned out so cute! 

Here are some of my favorites....

Sleeping Beauty Haircut

This afternoon, Ashley I went to get our haircut before the holidays.  We both were overdue for sure!  This was her second time at the "salon".  Anywho, we get to the hairdressers and she gets into the chair and tells the hairdresser that she wants a "sleeping beauty haircut".  Then she looks over at me while I am in the chair next to her and she says "And Mommy is going to get an Ariel haircut."  Then it's silent for a minute, and then she says, "And then later Daddy is coming by and getting a Prince Eric haircut!"  I couldn't help but bust up in laughter! She truly cracks me up.  Here is a photo of her getting her "sleeping beauty haircut." She was sooo well behaved.  I was so proud!

Corey's development

Hard to believe that Corey will be here in about 3 months!  He has become so active in my belly now.  I know certain times of the day that he is more active than others.  It's so sweet.  Around 22 weeks (about 3 weeks ago) Paul felt him move for the first time.  I loved when he felt Ashley move for the first time and now seeing him react to Corey brings that same feeling back.  It's such a miracle.  Usually that is the bonding moment that we are now a family of four.  He feels more involved now.  Ashley felt him move too!  I love to watch her put her hand on my belly and then look at my face and smile as she's waiting for him to kick her back.  She gets so excited!  He really loves her and reacts to her voice all the time.  She talks to him so much and each night she puts her head on my belly and says he's her pillow and tells him, "Thanks Corey" for giving her a pillow to rest on.  When I went away to Fredericksburg a couple weeks ago, she was so happy when I returned and immediately went to my belly to tell Corey how much she missed him too!  This truly is an amazing experience.  I am so excited to meet him.

I went for my 24 week appointment last week and all is progressing normally.  His heart rate was 155 bpm and my tummy is measuring around 25 cm, which is right on target.  Although, I did come down with a cold virus over the last week, so that has been making me feel uncomfortable. But other than that, all is great!

Christmas Spirit!

Ashley knows the majority of traditional christmas songs on the radio now.  Below is a list of her repertoire.  I am sure there are more, but these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.  I sware she knows almost all of the words.  It's so cute to listen to her. In parantheses is the pronunciation of how she says them.

Winter Wonderland (Winter Lunderland)
Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer (Rudolph the Nose Reindeer)
Feliz Navidad (Feliz Mamidad)
Holly Jolly Christmas
Jingle Bells
Jingle Bell Rock
Sleigh Ride (HER FAVORITE! she calls it Ashley's song)
Frosty the Snowman

She is so excited for Christmas to come.  She tells everyone she sees about Santa coming.  We have an advent calendar and everyday she gets to move the heart to the next day, but inside each pocket I put a Hershey kiss for her.  She looks forward to it everyday and it's really great to see her follow directions and learn the dates so well.  I am so proud of her!

Yesterday we were at the grocery store getting some things, and she was helping me push the cart. She walks into the store and yells out "Merry Christmas Grocery Store!" And she would twirl around in the isles and tell everyone that Santa is coming on Christmas Eve!  We were over at the seafood section in the store where the lobster tank is and she walks over to the tank and says "Merry Christmas!" to the lobster.  I love her spirit and it makes the holiday season so much brighter with her around. I am so blessed!

Some other cute things she has been saying lately is that when something is difficult, she says, "It's impostible!" And I love the way she says "cinnamon".  She says "Cimonim".

Ashley's new BIG Big girl bed

I mentioned in a past post that I would upload a picture of Ashley's new big girl bed, and here it is!  We bought her a new headboard and a new comforter and sheet set.  She is such a sweetheart and just LOVES her big bed. Hard to believe it was less than a year ago when we moved her out of the crib!  How fast time sure does fly by!

Girls Weekend - Fredericksburg

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The weekend of December 11-13th I went on a Girls' Weekend with some friends to Fredericksburg, TX. It's about an hour and a half north of San Antonio. It's a quaint, sweet little town and their downtown decorated for Christmas reminds me of Bedford Falls from the movie It's a Wonderful Life. We reserved a cabin about 10 minutes outside of downtown on this beautiful ranch. It was so relaxing there. Each morning I woke up to the sound of cows mooing! It was great! I even named one of the cows, Bessie. She kept mooing at me! There were deer walking around nearby and it was so quiet. I don't get much of quiet anymore nowadays, so I treasured it.
We arrived on a Friday night and went downtown for dinner and then got settled in the beautiful cabin. It was so neat to pull up to the cabin and see it decorated for Christmas. There was a gorgeous Christmas tree inside and out, and the place was stocked with everything you would need to make yourself at home. The people that own the cabin, served us breakfast each morning. We had delicious muffins for Saturday morning, and a breakfast casserole for Sunday. They were sooo yummy! On Saturday we went shopping along Main Street and came back to the cabin and made chicken enchiladas for dinner. We had so much food! There was a fire pit outside and we toasted marshmallows, made s'mores and looked at the stars. I even saw two shooting stars! I really felt myself slowly relaxing the muscles in my shoulders and taking slow, deep breaths. My favorite part was on Sunday morning after I was up, showered and packed, I sat outside on the wraparound porch with a cup of coffee, breakfast and a blanket and rocked on the rocking chair watching the deer. It was awesome.
I couldn't have asked for a better weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the girls and we plan on making this an annual event! I am so thankful for the wonderful friends that I have and the special times we spend together. It means the world to me! Thanks Lindsey, Rosie, Nena and Nellie for an amazing weekend! You are awesome women!

Sea World Christmas Celebration

On Saturday evening, Paul, Ashley and I went to Sea World to see the Christmas decorations and holiday-themed shows.  It was a lot of fun.  The Shamu Christmas show was great and Ashley loved the carolers that sang before the show.  It was freezing cold out, but it made me get into the Christmas spirit even more! (Paul may say otherwise, he wasn't too happy about the cold)

I love going to SeaWorld.  We have to renew our season passes soon,  It's one of Ashley's favorite places to go and she'll talk about our visits there for weeks afterwards.  She is quite the animal lover just like her parents!!

Here are some pictures from our night.  Enjoy!

The Polar Express 4D show (they had snow, and pumped the smell of hot chocolate through the air. The seats also rumbled when the train came through!  She LOVED it!)

At the Shamu Christmas Miracles Show

Merry Christmas!!

Riley Marie Vogt

My beautiful little niece Riley was born this morning. She weighed 7lbs and 1oz.  I only have one photo of her so far, but boy is she precious!  I can't wait to kiss her and hold her!!  I am so happy for John and Melisa.  What a little blessing!  Johnny is a big brother now!! So exciting.
Congratulations!  Welcome to the family Riley!  You are loved soooo much already!!

22 Weeks Pregnant with Corey Michael

I haven't taken pictures of my belly since I was 16 weeks.  These are some pics I took of myself.  I will have Paul take some of me when I reach 24 weeks (the 6 month mark).

I am starting to feel like a whale now; however, it's nice to actually look pregnant though, so I am not completely complaining.  I hate it when you feel terrible but don't look pregnant. Or you start gaining weight but don't look pregnant, but just as if you had too much to eat or gained a few pounds. But with that said, I still feel fairly large.

I have been feeling Corey move around more and more lately.  I feel like his personality is so much different than Ashley's already.  He doesn't jolt from side to side in the womb like she did, but instead, he feels like he just rolls over or squirms around a little. I don't know....we'll see, only time will tell.

Ashley has really been talking a lot about Corey.  She tells me that she loves him, and she talks to my belly all the time.  She loves to give my stomach "rasberries" and afterwards says how much "Corey likes that!"  She rubs my belly so gently and says, "Hi little guy, how are you doing Corey?"  It's so sweet.  He responds to her voice too! He always give me a kick after she talks to him.  Ashley thinks it's hysterical!  I am so excited to see Ashley as a big sister.  I really hope that they are close siblings.  That will be a dream.

What Christmas is all about

I love this time of year.  It's wonderful.  I love the gift giving, being with family and friends, the cold weather, hot chocolate, decorations, cookies, Christmas movies and the good food.  But sometimes, it quite easy to lose sight of what's truly important during this time of year. 

I love the holiday special, A Charlie Brown Christmas.  It's one of my absolute favorites, and even though we have it on DVD, I always look out for when it's on TV, just so I can catch it on TV like I did when I was a kid.  My favorite part in the special is when Charlie Brown shouts, "Does anyone know what Christmas is all about?!"  And I love how Linus explains it to Charlie Brown.  He sweet little voice and just how simple and beautiful the story really is, it just makes my heart melt and I always find myself smiling and taking a deep cleansing breath afterwards. 

Here is the clip from the show.  Listen to it when you find yourself stressing about the little things and give yourself the one minute and 17 seconds it takes to watch this little video, to take a deep, cleansing breath and remember what it's all about.