Some more pictures...

So today my wonderful husband surprised me with this beautiful bouquet of fall flowers! Isn't he sweet?







And here are some more belly pics (I know, I know, I've been posting a lot of them lately, but I feel like the ones I posted the other day were hideous; these are much better!)

I love getting things done!

We had an incredibly productive weekend, even though it doesn't really sound the most exciting. I got both of my bathrooms cleaned, my master bedroom closet cleaned out (we were able to donate five HUGE bags of clothing to charity), both upstairs and downstairs vacuumed, and Dan is in the middle of putting Christmas lights up right now (no, we won't actually turn them on until after Thanksgiving, but since it was almost 60 degrees here this weekend, he decided to take advantage of the warm weather and get them up now).

Oh, and we finished over half of our Christmas shopping! We went to the mall to get the stuff for my brother and my mother-in-law, but everything else was done online. I love how convenient amazon.com is--and it's so much cheaper!! I got three hardcover books for some people on my list, and my total, even with shipping, was $30 LESS than I would have paid at Barnes & Noble. Wow! I admit, part of me does like going to the mall and hearing the Christmas music, seeing the decorations and the shoppers and everything, but I'm fine only getting one or two gifts there; the rest of me is all about doing online. So much more convenient!

So, with the click of a mouse, I finished my shopping for my mom, my sister-in-law Nancy, and Dan. Since we got my mother-in-law's and brother's gifts at the mall, we now only have to get stuff for my dad and my brother-in-law Jason. (Oh, and Dan still has to buy stuff for me--his words, not mine!) Not bad for it not even being Thanksgiving yet!

I was going to post pictures of our Christmas lights, but Dan just informed me that we are out of some and we'll need to go to Target and get some more. Oh well, guess I'll have to wait until next weekend! :)

Entering the third trimester...

Here's a couple shots of me on Wednesday, November 18, the day that I officially turned 27 weeks, aka entering my third trimester!! Please ignore the PJs (it was right before I went to bed) and the fact that I look huge all over, not just my stomach ;)

Some more pics...

Last weekend, it was so nice here and uncharacteristically warm; mid-60s in early November is not exactly the norm in Wisconsin. So we took advantage of the warm weather and went to the farmer's market (and got some yummy squash--which Dan made an excellent soup out of--tomatoes and cheese), and while we were there, Rori wanted to play around on the capitol square. So here are some shots of her:







On Sunday, my aunt Chris and cousin Katrina came up from Chicago, so we went to breakfast with them, Tracy's family and my grandparents:


Maxine was most excited about me getting my new laptop (for when I work from home) since that meant she had a new box to play in :)


This past weekend was more of just a "stay in and do nothing" weekend, although we did get to go to a Badger basketball game; one of my co-workers had two extra tickets, so Dan and I got to go. It was not a very close game, since we beat then something like 75-43, but it was still fun to go support our alma mater! :)

Some Halloween pics

On Halloween we went over to Dan and Tracy's to see the girls in their costumes; Kirsti was an enchanted fairy and Rori was Alice in Wonderland (and so was Tracy).










The two Alices and the fairy


Dumping out her candy...


Surveying her stash...


Tracy got us these really cute clothes for the baby next year; the purple onesie is definitely for a girl (it says "Ghouls just want to have fun" so we'll save that for the next baby if this one is a boy!) but the hat could go either way :)




On Sunday, November 1, we went to the Grey Rock Mansion for brunch to celebrate my grandparents' 63rd anniversary. Here they are, with Tracy and my aunt Chris (their two kids who were there; my mom is obviously in Utah, and my uncle Alan is in California).



All of us at brunch (except for Dan Hines, who is taking the photo)


And here's Nancy and me at Old World Wisconsin (they visited October 23-25).

Our doctor's appointment

Our appointment with our midwife went well, as always. We heard the heartbeat again, and it's so crazy how much louder it is and easier to find than it was when we first started hearing it! The heart rate did go down, though, from the 160s to 146, so for those putting stock in old wives' tales, it might not be a girl as originally thought! (I, of course, still think it's a boy).

She said I'm measuring big, though, and although she didn't seem concerned at all (she just mentioned it in passing) I kind of had a mental pause at this information. Apparently, your uterus is supposed to be 2 inches either way from how many weeks you are; since I'm 24 weeks, I should be measuring anywhere from 22 to 26 inches. Apparently I'm bigger than that (she didn't say by how much, just that I was "measuring big".) Hmmmm.... I'm all for having a big, healthy baby, but I am worried about having one that's too big!

24 Weeks Today!

So I'm 24 weeks exactly as of today, and I'm really happy about this milestone, since 24 weeks is considered the viability point. I'm thrilled to have made it this far! (Not that I didn't expect to, but you just never know). We have another midwife appointment today, and hopefully everything will still be going well.

I have a feeling that this baby is going to be one contrary little bugger. Whenever I feel it kicking a lot and squirming around, I'll say to Dan, "Give me your hand," which he does, and the minute I place it on my stomach, the movement stops. Dan will have to wait five minutes or so to feel it kicking again, and even then, it'll just be one or two movements (so at least he's felt it, which is good). But the minute he takes his hand away, the baby starts moving like crazy again and is practically doing gymnastics in there. It's like the baby is purposefully being contrary and saying, "Nope, Dad, you don't get to feel me kick as much as Mom does." *sigh* (And yes, obviously I know this is beyond the cognitive ability of my child, but it just seems kind of funny :D)