Brettley, Santa and Caleb

Yesterday I heard Brettley's heartbeat and he kicked the fetal doppler. Next week I get to go and drink the sugary orange pop for the gestational diabetes screen. That's about all that's going on there.

The boys and I made Santa crafts before supper. Ty kept trying to smear white glue everywhere, but Caleb did really well. He loves making crafts so much. I'm not really sure what we're going to do today. We were supposed to be making chocolate pecan bars, but I don't have my cooking spray until after supper tonight when John gets groceries, so I'm trying to think of what to do. We'll think of something, I'm sure. I think a project I need to do in the new year is to get a decent box of craft supplies for them organized.

I also forgot Caleb's big news for this last week is that he has learned how to spell his name without help. He is SO proud of himself. Now I just have to work on teaching him how to write it. He has issues with writing letters, pen control doesn't come easy for him at all. I'm not sure what to do about that.

8 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!

Stuff And Things

I guess I officially do NOT know how to take it easy. I spent most of my day yesterday cleaning and shoveling (twice). Anyway, I did put on Forgotten Carols for the kids, but they were not interested at all. Oh well, maybe next year. Today I have a prenatal appointment and then when we get home we'll do the Santa craft. Caleb will be so excited, he LOVES doing crafts.

As today is Thursday, it's also Attitude of Gratitude day. So here we go:

1) I am grateful that put heat on my back a lot during the night kept my back functioning pretty well today. It's a trick I'm sure I'll need to use more in the coming months and I'm really glad that I found that it works when I did.

2) I am grateful that I will get to have a Christmas dinner with my mum & Bob, then one with my dad and then one with John's parents this year. It will be nice to have something special with everyone. I will really miss getting to see my brother, though.

3) I am grateful for the tin of Almond Roca that John bought me yesterday for cleaning the house. I loves me some Almond Roca:)

Anyway, that's about all for now, I can't believe we're in the single digits for the Christmas countdown. 9 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS:)

Change of Plans and Forgotten Carols

We had a change of plans for our activity yesterday. Instead of the Santa craft we read 'The Forgotten Carols: A Christmas Miracle For Isaac and Eliza' and listened to the songs that go with the book. We also watched on you tube The Nativity to the music of Breath of Heaven. I enjoyed it, Ty kind of liked it and Caleb barely endured it. I guess you can't win them all.

Today we're going to watch our Forgotten Carols DVD. John and I watched it a few weeks ago, but the boys have never seen it. I don't know if they'll like it as much as I do, but I definitely can feel the spirit every time that I watch it, so I think it's a great activity.

Anyway, not much else is new. I'm still taking things easy, especially after I woke up with a really bad pain in my back this morning. I have a VERY hard time taking it easy, especially with 2 young kids in the house, but I'm really trying.

10 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS:)

A Short One

So we decorated our gingerbread house but didn't get pictures because the kids started eating it before it was even done. It was great fun, though:)

Today I am taking things super easy because my body and Brett don't seem to like it in the slightest when I do anything other than minimal cleaning. The boys and I are going to hang out and later on we'll make Santa crafts.

Still looking for ideas on how to decorate a house for little cost, so if you have any please let me know. (Everyday decorating, not Christmas decorating)

11 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS:)

Reading, Cleaning, Gingerbread House and Decorating

Last night I read 'The Night Before Christmas' to the boys. When we read Polar Express it was Ty that was really into sitting down and listening to the story, but not yesterday. Caleb, however, sat through the whole thing and gave lots of smiles. Also, at some point yesterday I managed to sprain my wrist somehow. I'm still not sure exactly how I did it, but it's definitely aching today. I'd planned on doing lots more cleaning today, but my wrist has other ideas. So I've been doing a fat load of nothing. Well, that's not entirely true. I did manage to get the downstairs bathroom totally scrubbed down before my wrist told me to knock it off. I also got the dishwasher unloaded, most of the dirty dishes put into it and made gifts for the sisters that I visit teach.

Our activity for tonight is to assemble a gingerbread house, take pictures of it and then each sample a piece. That should be interesting. Last year it was just Caleb and I putting it together. I applied the icing and he applied/ate the candies. I'm not artistically talented, so our gingerbread houses are never much to look at, but they always taste great, which is the part that the kids will care about the most.

I'm also trying to think of cheap ways to decorate my house in the new year, so if you have any tips, please let me know.

12 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS:)

Caleb's Back, Tub Cleaning and Belly

So I ended up having to stay home from Church with Caleb today. He fell while we were cleaning the chapel yesterday and scraped his back up, which I didn't know until I washed his back in the bathtub this morning and caused him to cry. He was hurting pretty bad so I let him stay home, but the deal was that he had to help me clean his room. (He spit chewed up carrots all over it) So we did that and then I cleaned our upstairs hallway and our upstairs bathroom. I tried something for my hard water stains on my tub that I read about way earlier this year on Feigning Fertility but hadn't actually gotten around to trying. So I spread a whole bottle of toilet bowl cleaner around my tub and let it sit for 45 minutes while the fan was going in there, during which I pigged out on junk food that I definitely should not have been eating. Anyway, I got back up to the bathroom which smelled somewhere in between the smell of sickly sweet bubble gum and spearmint. It was overwhelming, but I stuck it out. I proceeded to use a sponge to rinse off my tub. Notice I said RINSE, not 'scrub until my arms were ready to fall off and then scrub some more'. Long story short, there are no hard water stains left on my tub at all. It's amazing! So if you're reading this Ashley, THANK YOU!!! (For the record, I do realize that I just publicly admitted that I clean on Sundays)

Anyway, our activity for the day is to read 'The Night Before Christmas', which we'll do later once Ty wakes up from his nap. Also, I got some belly photos taken this morning, so here I am, in all my fat belly/butt glory, at 25 weeks:
Oh, 13 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS:)

Movies, Pizza and Food Bank

Yesterday we not only watched Rudolph, but also ended up doing a pizza picnic that night and watching How The Grinch Stole Christmas. I'd had a tiny bit of a flu all day and just wasn't up to making supper, so we skipped that activity up by a couple of weeks. I found another to take its place when the day comes.

Today we bought some extra groceries and put them in the food bank donation box. Before we went shopping I explained to Caleb that we were going to buy some groceries and give it to a place that helps people get food when they don't have enough money to buy food on their own. He seemed to like that idea, but had to make sure that Daddy had enough money to buy groceries for us. I assured him that Daddy had enough to buy groceries for us.

Well, that's about all for now because I need to go and have something to eat.

2 WEEKS (14 DAYS) UNTIL CHRISTMAS:)