Baby, It's Cold Outside!

The cold weather is here and it finally feels like the holidays! Thanksgiving was amazing and Mom's homemade dressing didn't disappoint. I look forward to it every year. And, after many helpings, it always leaves me completely satisfied and a pound heavier. I mean, a pound happier! 

The cool weather kind of snuck up on us when we celebrated Thanksgiving with my mom's side on Saturday. We left the house with Sammy in shorts and showed up to a little bite in the air. So, after just a couple hellos (which there are TONS on Mom's side since our family is so huge) I changed Sammy into some warmer clothes. Well, since I was changing his clothes I just decided to change his diaper, too. Makes sense, huh? Well, I go to change him on the couch and just like that, he peed on Momma! My jeans were wet with pee. Again, we made an arrival! Oh well, it's all part of being a mom. I changed him into some warm clothes and we enjoyed an amazing day at my aunt's lakehouse. It was the first time we celebrated Thanksgiving out there and it is just the neatest place. It's right on the water, has a huge deck, and of course, tons of family and food.

Thanksgiving day we spent at Neil's grandma on his dad's side and it was the first year we were able to stay there all day. Last year, we had three Thanksgivings in one day in two different towns. It's exhausting. It just so happened to work out this year that we had them on different days, though Mom had a little something at her house on Thanksgiving day. We missed it since we would be there the next day and there to celebrate with them and her side of the family on Saturday.

I have to say, all of this traveling is exhausting. And now, traveling with a little one, it makes things so hard. We spend the holidays in a car, jam packed with stuff and driving from town to town from here to there. It makes it a little less fun. I can't wait until the kids are older to where we are able to spend the holidays more at home and are able to wake up on Christmas morning at home instead of stuffed in a vehicle. We just can't make all of these different meals and gatherings on the same day. It makes the holidays miserable for us and makes us feel like we don't have a holiday. We don't want to dread the holidays, we want to enjoy them! It'd be great if we could split ourselves in four people. But, that's just not the case. Oh well, we'll figure it out one day.

The cold weather is fantastic! The other night was the first night we put the heater on. It was just too cold in the house and not only was I a popsicle, but I was afraid Sammy would be too cold during the night. We decided to put the heater on. I woke up at 2 in the morning and was absolutely freezing. I woke up Neil to find out that the heater was not working. Sammy was waking up during the night. We later were thinking it was either because it was too cold or because he's teething. I couldn't believe on one of the coldest nights of the year we were without heat! We put a blanket on Sammy and toughed out the night. When we got up in the morning, it was 59 degrees in the house! Luckily we were able to get it fixed by yesterday evening so that we did not have to go without heat again. I don't think we could have gone another night as ice cubes! Maybe we could have toughed it out, but we didn't want poor Sammy to be a Sammysicle when he woke up.

Sammy woke up on Thanksgiving morning as Tarzan! Throughout the night and him playing in the crib in the morning, his arm must have snuck out. It was cute!

Sammy was fascinated by my candy cane striped socks!

Sweet Little Peanut

The days lately have been escaping me and my poor blog has been lonely! I've been so busy with Christmas decorations for the last few days. Yes, before Thanksgiving. Definitely a first for me. The house is looking so festive! Too bad this Texas weather can't cooperate. But, hopefully soon the cold weather will be here.

Today I went to the doctor for my 11 week checkup. I'm trying hard this pregnancy to try not to gain nearly as much weight as the first time, especially since I wasn't able to lose my baby weight before I got pregnant again. So, needless to say I'm trying to be conscious of what I eat. So far, I've only gained a couple of pounds and I'm almost out of the first trimester. So, I'm doing okay!

I had another ultra sound today and got to see the sweet little peanut, as I call him/her. What a sweet little baby! It started to get me excited and it made it all a little more real. Everything is looking great! I had to get blood work done so needless to say, that wasn't the highlight of my day. I have a serious complex with needles. So, I turned my head and closed my eyes the entire time. It made it better! Sammy was such a good boy at the doctor's office today. We ended up being there for an hour and a half and he was just an angel. He had all of the nurses goo goo gah gahing over him. He's already winning the ladies hearts. Too bad he's marrying his Momma. Ha!  :)

Thanksgiving Came Mega Early

Yesterday we celebrated our first Thanksgiving of the season, with two more still to come. We celebrated really early since half of the hubby's family will be in Colorado on Thanksgiving. So, they wanted to celebrate early so that we would all be able to get together for the holiday. We had a great time! The food was fantastic and I always enjoy the family and a good game of Taboo! I absolutely love that game. It's a quick thinking game that leaves you on the edge of your seat. Well, it does for me anyway. I love it!

Neil's cousin had their first baby in September so we had two babies celebrating the holiday with us. He's 7 weeks old and so tiny! Hard to believe Sammy was once a little squirt. The little one slept practically the whole day, which was a far cry from our little one who made his grand entrance into the house as a screaming ball of love. He was fussy from people passing him around to hold him after church and was super hungry. He sucked down about 8 ounces of formula in a matter of seconds, it seemed! Needless to say, we made an entrance. Sammy is scooting and dragging himself around all over the place. I wouldn't say he is "crawling" yet because I reserve that term for hands and knees, full blown crawling around. So, I'll say Sammy is "traveling". He can get to any toy he wants by scooting and army crawling that way. He'll get on all fours and rock and all. It looks so cute but now I definitely have to keep an eye on him!

Overall, we had a great time for our first Thanksgiving of the year. It was nice to have such yummy food, though I was a little nauseous being 9 weeks pregnant. But, I managed to get down some desserts. (Ha!) Neil's grandma is a great cook so you know the food is going to be wonderful. I'm looking forward to our next couple of Thanksgivings, and especially looking forward to mom's homemade dressing. It's out of this world!

The sleeping boys and their daddy's snuggling beside them. Cute picture!

Deer Season in Full Swing

As a Texan, you can bet your bottom dollar that deer hunting is part of our lives. This past weekend was opening weekend of deer season and like tradition says, it is a guys weekend full of throwing washers, making morning and evening hunts, and hours of poker (and smack talking!). Well, a couple plan changes later and me not feeling well, there ended up being three women and three kiddos crashing this all guys weekend, myself included.

I wasn't feeling well with being newly pregnant and a little under the weather with not being able to breathe, I wasn't too thrilled about me and Sammy being home alone all weekend. And, at the same time, one of the guys had to bring his kids and then my mother-in-law and sister-in-law decided they were going. So, the weekend was officially crashed. I guess since I figured we were there, that we'd all hang out and spend time together. That wasn't the case! I hardly even saw the hubby on the Saturday we were there. And, being a light sleeper, I was counting down the minutes until they would be done playing poker so I could get some sleep, just to be woken up four hours later when they got up for a hunt.

Needless to say, by the end of the weekend and feeling as though a truck ran over us from lack of sleep, my mother-in-law and I looked at each other saying, "I don't think we'll be coming to this again!" I guess even though the weekend was crashed, the guys carried on with their normal, traditional weekend as we were stuck inside. Oh well. They all had a great time and I always enjoy being out at the ranch. Just wish I could have caught a little more sleep!

Cold morning at the ranch and all we could find was a beanie for Sammy. 

So, we folded it up and out we went!

Happy Belated Halloween

Halloween has developed into a big deal in our family over the past couple of years. Because my dad's birthday is November 1st, the day after Halloween, we usually have a big celebration on Halloween to celebrate the two. Last year was so much fun! My mom and sister did tons of Halloween decorating and made the cutest Halloween foods, from spider webbed 7 layer dip to severed shortbread witch fingers. It was fabulous! On top of that all, it was our first Halloween as a married couple (and I was sporting my tiny baby bump from our honeymoon baby!). I love dressing up for Halloween so I found the most awesome Halloween costume at this huge Halloween warehouse downtown...Lucille Ball! My costume was so spot on and I had so much fun with it.

This year was a different story. Halloween came and went and we have not a single Halloween decoration up in our house. Our pumpkin on the front porch is not even carved. Our house has been decorated for Fall and looks to have been waiting for Thanksgiving since the middle of September. Ok, I admit, I'm obsessing over the anticipation of my first bite of Mom's dressing! It's the absolute best. But, "skipping" Halloween just kind of happened. Everyone in our family is so busy right now. And, since Halloween fell on a Monday, our usual weekend Halloween party was out of the picture. So, we just kind of skipped it this year. I thought I'd still be able to wear my Lucy costume so I was pumped! Mr. Spouse's mom said they were going to a Halloween dance and we were invited to come and dress up. I was thrilled! After days of built anticipation to bust out my costume, I got a call from his mom saying that they couldn't go. She had forgotten her husband was going hunting that weekend. Agh! That kind of blew our only plans of Halloween out of the water. But, oh well. We have little Sammy and knew he wouldn't want to be out late.

I can't wait for the day we get to dress up little Sammy to take him trick or treating! We would have this year if we would have gone somewhere, such as the Halloween dance. But, we weren't going to dress him up to take him trick or treating. The boy is just 6 months old, for crying out loud. I'm not about to tote him around town as a disguise to get candy for Mommy and Daddy. We spent our Halloween with Neil watching football while I watched The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills with my tissues, blowing my nose. No, not because I was crying from the Real Housewives. I've been sick the past few days. Oh, and no trick or treaters came by even if we planned to give out candy because our porch light is out because it needs a new bulb! But, this isn't to say I didn't get a good scare. I was watching Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later in the living room while Neil was making him a plate for dinner in the kitchen. As I had Sammy on my lap during the movie, I heard a "BANG BANG BANG!!" on the door and nearly jumped off the couch. Apparently there were some trick or treaters already running around at pure daylight and couldn't see our porch light was intentionally unintentionally off. Ok, I admit it. We knew the light was out days ago. But, what a perfect excuse not to waste money on candy that I'd end up eating anyway!

Halloween 2010 - Lucille Ball