Showing our Christmas Spirit

As I've written before, my family likes to compete in order to show our Christmas spirit. It started just a few years back with a cookie decorating contest, then came the ornament decorating contest, then a karaoke contest, then last year was the video contest. This year, we had dual contests: A Tacky Sweater contest and a Minute to Win It competition.

Words can't describe the tackiness, so I will show you:

They made their sweaters themselves. And 'tacky' was a new vocabulary word they learned; except when you ask Avery what tacky means, she'll tell you "really silly sweaters".

Hannah even added a "tacky scent" to her sweater.

Robo-Santa, or Christmas-Bot, I'm not sure what his name was...

Ashleigh incorporated her dog. Annie did not appreciate this.

Drumroll please......

(click to enlarge and experience the full effect)

And if you were wondering, Kevin won the contest. He had movable parts, you can't compete with that.

Checkin' in on Harper

Our most recent appointment was the Tuesday before Christmas. I had to drink the "goo" that tells if I have gestational diabetes and I had been warned about it. Well someone lied to me! It was about 2 tablespoons of orange soda like liquid and it took me, oh well, 3 seconds to drink it. What were my results? I don't know yet. So I am assuming that no news is good news.

Speaking of good news, Harper is still doing well. She weighed 2 lbs 6 ounces. She was still breech, which the doctor said was fine this early on. However (and I could be wrong) I think she moved up last night and out of that position. We didn't know this but our doctor does a 3-D ultrasound, which she did on Tuesday. We were looking at the black and white screen and then all of the sudden: Bam! a baby. The unfortunate news was that the printer wouldn't work, so Kevin had to take a picture of the computer screen with his phone.

The photo isn't the clearest, but if you lean back, squint one eye, and hold your breath, hopefully you can make out a baby face. She is pouting and no, she does not have a hole in her head, that is the ultrasound machine.

Our next appointment is a week from today, Friday the 7th.

Also, on the Harper news front, we have finally decided on a middle name.......

Harper Belle

We love her name, in all it's southern glory (say it in a Paula Deen accent and you'll know what I'm talking about).

Also, she has moved more in the last 8 hours than ever before in her little life. I think she is throwing a block party down there or something. Neither baby or mama slept much last night, and in turn, neither did daddy. Oops!

But even still, it is such a blessing to feel a healthy, active little girl, no matter how much commotion she makes.

~

"Blame it on Harper"

That's what people keep telling me when I forget something or do something ridiculous. Well, if I start blaming her for all of my ridiculous-ness, that poor girl will have a self-esteem problem before she even comes out!

And when people have been nagging me lately to update the blog, they always tell me to blame it on her. Well in truth, it's not her fault, it's mine. But I will have you know, I am cooking up some pretty good blog topics for the upcoming weeks; I just have to wait until I have pictures to go with them. So here are a few picture-less things that have been going on lately:

I'm finally on Christmas break; and a much needed Christmas break. My kids this year are out to get me! I swear it. This year is known as "Take down Mrs. Lawson Year". Don't tell my fellow teachers this (and if you are a fellow teacher, skip a few lines), but this is a great year to have maternity leave to look forward to. So these upcoming two weeks are needed to restore my sanity and I am sure that Harper AND her father will be thankful for them also.

Christmas has arrived at the Lawson house! We are decorated, trimmed, lit, and smelling like sweets! Kevin put up lights on the outside of the house for the first year. And I do believe, a monster has been created. Our lights are simple this year, but I guarantee it's the last year they'll be simple. He is already planning how he'll beat the neighbors next year. Right now, his focus is getting a Storm Tropper (from Star Wars) dressed as Santa on the roof. I vetoed the Star Wars themed nativity though. Baby Jesus will NOT be portrayed by Yoda in my yard!

I've also discovered (or been reminded) that he has no patience for presents. He has asked me to open my gifts every day for about 2 weeks. Now that I am home everyday, it's only getting worse. I hear a lot of :

"Will you just open your presents, already?!"

He doesn't want his gifts, he just wants me to open mine. He's already made me open two! He's a very persuasive man!

We have a baby doctor's appointment tomorrow. I have to drink the goop that tells them if I have gestational diabetes. Blah! Not looking forward to it. Harper had better be photogenic in her picture tomorrow, because I will need something to cheer me up after consuming a gallon of goo!

As far as nursery progress goes, the holiday season has really put a halt on any progress. We do have a crib now. Kevin picked it out, purchased and assembled it, all in one day. He did a great job! I will upload some pictures of it soon. But January is baby room month, so I should make some major progress in a few weeks.

As far as Harper is concerned: She kicks all the time (also punches, wiggles, rolls, head-butts, etc). She wakes up every morning at approximately 2:00am. She weighed 1 pound, 6 ounces a month ago; I am expecting more like 2 or 3 pounds tomorrow. She's definitely growing. The seat in my car is gradually needing to be moved back, doors need to be opened a little wider, and t-shirts that used to be baggy come to about my belly-button and stop. She already thinks her daddy is silly; or at least she wiggles like a mad-man when he yells at my belly. (I keep telling him he doesn't need to yell, poor kid.) But as far as I can tell and by what the Doc says, she is a perfectly healthy little girl. And that's how we're praying she stays.

So that's a pretty decent update on our lives. Hopefully during these next two weeks, I will find time to post some more. But you know me, don't count on it.

~

23 weeks

Kevin felt her kick! Oh yes he did.

The pitter patter of little feet made his heart skip a beat.

Well, he might not describe it the same way, but he was absolutely content feeling her move.

And I can finally breathe a sigh of relief; I was starting to feel pretty selfish, being the only one who could feel her. =)

Mellow Yellow

Kevin has been doing a lot of work in Harper's room. He installed the bead board and painted the walls. Now all we need to do is make curtains, get the crib, hang decorations, find a changing table, move the rocker in.....OK, so we have the majority left to do! But hey, I'll take any progress I can get!

Trick or Treat

My favorite girls stopped by for some candy this weekend. Dorthy, Dorthy, & Pirate Avery.

I LOVE 'EM!

Baby Belly

You asked for it, here is the current belly status: small enough that I can see my feet, big enough that actually reaching my feet is quite a challenge.

Baby, Oh Baby!

It's been too long since I last posted, and I am well aware of that. Trust me, if you haven't told me that I have been lazy, someone else has!

But I have good excuses; instead of boring you with all of them, I will just say 'We've been busy!'.

A lot of our busy has been "baby-busy" though, so I will catch you up to speed on my pregnancy status.

I am currently 20 weeks, which means we are half way there. I have a fourth ultrasound next week. It's been 3 weeks since my last appointment and all she's had to do since then is sit in there and get cuter, so I am sure she is adorable by now. We'll see her again in just a few days!

~

Two days ago, I felt her kick for the first time. She likes to kick when I lay down, and I can sometimes get her to kick more if I talk to her. How cute is that?!? It's the strangest feeling and I've had a hard time explaining it to Kevin. It isn't at all like how others described it to me. It's just awesome! And I can't wait for her to kick hard enough that he can feel it.

~

I definitely feel like I look pregnant, of course I've noticed every little change, so I've thought that for a long time. But strangers are starting to make comments and when I see people I know, they say "I didn't know you were pregnant!". So I guess that means I really do look pregnant. People are requesting pictures of the growing belly bump, but I need a husband who isn't at the station to take pictures; so those people will just have to wait.

~

We've decided on the first name Harper, and we have narrowed the middle name down to a few choices, but we aren't set on any middle names. We'll figure it out eventually. But with knowing she's girl, and having a name for her, it really makes all of this seem so much more real. We talk about her like we already know what she's like and we talk to her all the time. Here's an actual example of what I mean:

Kevin- "Harper's favorite animal is a moose."

Cara- "I thought you said she liked giraffes?."

Kevin- "Well she hasn't officially decided yet, but she really likes the moose."

~

Kevin and my mom are going garage sale crazy! This girl has more clothes than she'll know what to do with!

This is just part of the clothes they have bought for her. This doesn't include any of the new clothes she has.

Here are a few of my favorite garage sale finds! They really are doing a good job!

It just cracks me up how she is only 20 weeks old (in the womb) and probably has more outfits than either Kevin or myself. It's outta control!

~

Speaking of purchases for Harper, the teacher in me is constantly looking for good deals on children's books.

I may not be the garage sale extraordinaire that my mom or Kevin are, but I'm proud of my collection.

~

One of Kevin's many projects lately has been the bassinet. He has researched, compared prices, looked on Craig's list, eBay, garage sales and every baby store we've found. We both agreed that most bassinets have too much frill for us, and it was becoming quite hard to find one that we liked well enough. But this week, his searching paid off; he found a great bassinet with tons of gadgets. I expected us to buy it and leave it in the box for the next 5 months. I was wrong, it was assembled within an hour of returning home.

~

We've decided that Harper will be wearing only OSU clothing home from the hospital. You know, let the world know she a Cowboy right away; no room for misunderstandings. Here is what we have so far:

Not much, but newborn sized university apparel is surprising hard to find.

~

Many people have been asking if we have a theme for the nursery. The answer is: we do not. And we won't. We know what we want it to look like in our minds, but it's hard to translate into words. When I say 'we' know what we want, it's probably more 'me'. Kevin just buys what he likes, (or according to him, 'what Harper likes') and then it's up to me to make it work. Here is a sample of fabric that he wants me to incorporate:

I have a couple of ideas, we'll see. Tim Gunn will be proud, I'll 'make it work'.

~

*Correction

Last night, over dinner, we were discussing the latest doctor visit. Kevin very cautiously said "I didn't want to say anything but I thought the doctor said 130 beats/minute."

Most likely, this is correct. However, due to the fact that I may or may not be an emotional basket case right now, he chose to not correct me, but to let me go around telling the world 139 beats/minute.

So for the record, the baby's heart beat was either 139 or 130. (Most likely, the sane one of the two of us heard correctly and it truly was 130)

*Either that or he is grasping onto the statistic that boys heartbeats are less than 140 and girls are above. Wishful thinking maybe?

~

The Biggest News

See that little dot?

That little tiny one?

Well that's the newest addition to our family.

All .87 centimeters and 139 heartbeats/minute of him.

Our blessing is scheduled to arrive March 18th, 2011.

Gettin' Crafty!

I've been bitten. By the DIY bug.

*DIY = Do It Yourself

If there is a piece of furniture in my reach, it's in danger of restoration.

Here are my weapons of choice:

And here are a few of my victims:

This is an old hotel nightstand that Gigi's friend Floyd gave to my mom, then she gave it to me, and I decided it needed a little facelift.

These drawers go to a dresser that was left in our garage when we bought the house. Now, it's found a new home in our bedroom.

The chair was also left here at the house. It was dark brown with a really tacky green seat. My mother-in-law said "That chair better now be thrown away; it's too cool." So after that inspiration, I applied a new coat of paint, did the antique method (that I love so much) and covered the seat in a new fabric.

Sorry, no before pictures.

* can ya tell that black is my color of choice right now?

Hannah & I had a craft night. She used a potato masher as a stamp.

Be prepared to be amazed by the cuteness of this project!

*Where we snatched the idea

Ta-Da!

Told ya it was cute!

First Time Home Buyers, Part 3

We are finally moved in. We've been so busy settling in that I haven't had time to update the blog. Either that or I have wanted to be outside working on a project instead of sitting at the computer. But whatever my excuse is, it is time for a mega-update.

For those of you who haven't seen the house, here are a few exterior pics.

All we have done to the outside is: start painting the exterior, add the fence, & trim a few trees

Can't you just picture a couple window boxes, and a huge flower bed right there? I sure can!

So, when we purchased the house, we were told that it was 0.66 acres. Just under 3/4's. We were thrilled with that. However, when we reviewed the abstract, we discover that we actually own just over 1 full

acre. Ahhh! Responsibility!

So the unfenced area that you see above is our property. It has a lot of brush that needs to be cleared. See Kevin's chair that he sits in when monitoring his brush pile? He loves to burn, 90 degrees and all!

Here are a few "Before & Now" photos.

I don't want to say 'before & after' because we are

far from complete, but hopefully you can all still appreciate the improvements.

Kitchen

The new counters that Kevin tiled. So much better than the blue laminate!

Laundry

No one better knock my curtains! I made them out of burlap and I LOVE them.

Hall Bathroom

Who doesn't love wood paneling etched with images of pirate ships? Me! That's who.

Living Room

Kevin installed track lighting above the fire place and canned lighting throughout the living room.

As you can see, we have been busy. We are really proud of what we've done, as a first home, we think this one is pretty special.

So stop by! We'll fix dinner for ya!

~