Christmas 2009

Kyle and I had a wonderful Christmas! I have really enjoyed my time off of work and have kept myself busy! On the day before Christmas Eve, Kori and I went over to mom's to bake our traditional iced Christmas cookies. Mom got a bunch of new Christmas cookie cutters and we tried out a new way of icing the cookies. They turned out soooo cute! Mason told mom that they were "famous" cookies and that she was the best cookie maker of the whole world! Here are some of our creations...

I made this little Coots gingerbread family...Kyle, Kyla, and baby Lane!

Kori and I showing off some of our best ones!
And here is mom with her "best" one. Ha ha!

We spent Christmas Eve with my mom, Kori, and Mitch. We ate our traditional enchilada soup dinner and then headed out to church for the 8:00 service. When we got home we took our yearly pictures and then opened all of our gifts!

This picture was a little challenging, but we ended up getting a decent one! All of the dogs are looking and no one closed their eyes!

Mom gave us a cute bib that says "No more silent nights" to use for Lane's first Christmas.

And Lane gave "Mums" a bib to keep at her house when he comes over.

He also gave bibs to Aunt Kori and Uncle Mitch!

We always change into our pj's after church to open presents. Thanks mom and Kori for the great gifts!

When we got home from mom's house, Kyle was so excited to exchange our gifts to each other. He handed me a small box to open and inside I found an envelope with a number 1 on it. I read the card inside and it was a poem that led me outside to our garage refrigerator. In the fridge was a card that said #2 and it sent me in to the extra bedroom. I kept following the rhyming clues and eventually ended up in the office. The last card said that Scout had the "keys" to my final clue, and i looked on her collar and found a tiny luggage key. Kyle was sitting in the office chair with a small carry-on suitcase at his feet. I quickly got the key off of Scout's collar and opened the suitcase...and inside was a MACBOOK PRO!!! I was soooo excited! I have been wanting a Mac laptop for 2 years now and did not expect to get one this year because of the baby coming and other expenses. I felt bad having Kyle open his gifts after my huge surprise from him, but he was happy to get new running shoes and was very excited to see that I bought him 2 tickets to the Mavs vs. Lakers game in February.

Here I am showing off my shiny new Mac!

The next day we woke up and headed to the Coots' house for Christmas morning. I didn't take any pictures :( but we had a great time. Claire was as generous as always and did not disappoint with her gifts. I got some new boots, a cute diaper bag, new perfume, gift cards, and lots of trinkets and cute gifts for Lane. Both my mom and Kyle's parents gave us Best Buy gift cards to go towards a video camera to use when Lane arrives. We also got some Babies R Us gift cards together to put towards our nursery furniture. After gifts, we ate lunch and played a few rounds of the game "Apples to Apples."

The day after Christmas we headed to Brady for our 3rd and last celebration. We had fun playing with Mason and Marley and Mason was very excited to show off his new Wii that Santa brought him. We ate delicious enchiladas, tamales and chalupas for dinner and opened presents that night.

Here is our last Christmas picture as a family of 2 (+dog). Next year we will have our baby boy in the picture!

Me and Paw

The whole gang with Paw

Mason had fun opening his gifts and got some wii games from me and Kyle and Gator Golf from Kori and Mitch.

Marley was sooo cute and seemed to have a great first Christmas. She got some cute new outfits and was very happy! I just love this picture of her!

It's always sad when Christmas is over! Now comes the not so fun part of taking down Christmas lights and decorations and heading back to work. :( Now we can just look forward to March!

28 Week Update

Today marks the start of my 28th week of pregnancy! Hello 3rd trimester! I thought I would start documenting a few stats from now on so I can look back and see what was happening and when.

28 Weeks

Total Weight Gain so far: 12 lbs
Belly Button: In, getting a little bit flatter
Stretch Marks: None yet!
Cravings: Fruit, especially apples and mandarin oranges.
Sleeping Situation: So far so good, no problems falling asleep or staying asleep! Still waking up 1-2 times a night to use the restroom.
I miss: Sleeping on my stomach and wearing my hoodies. None of them are long enough to fit over my belly anymore!
Annoying symptoms: Very itchy skin, occasional leg cramps, and just last week I started getting what I think is acid reflux or indigestion. I have never had any of this in my life, but late at night I have started feeling a burning lump in my throat and assume that it is acid reflux.
Exciting news this week: LOTS!
1. Last week I was laying on the couch watching a movie with Kyle and Lane was kicking a bunch! I lifted my shirt and noticed that my whole stomach was moving! There was a huge lump to the right of my belly button and then the left side of my stomach started twitching and my belly button started moving all around! It was crazy! He is definitely getting bigger and more and more active!

2. Kyle and I went to Babies R' Us on Monday during his lunch break to register for some big items. Mom and Kori will be going with me to register for all of the little things later this week. Kyle and I picked out our stroller, pack n' play, swing and bouncer, monitor, and a few other things. We also bought our nursery furniture and it should be delivered in the next week! Here is a picture of the furniture:

3. This morning I went in for my glucose tolerance screening. I was dreading this because I had heard such horror stories about the juice I was going to have to drink. It was orange flavored and actually didn't taste that bad. I am not a good "chugger" and had to finish the bottle in 5 minutes, so it did make me gag a few times, and I felt a little nauseous while waiting to have my blood drawn, but I did fine. Glad it is over and hopefully the test will come back ok!

4. I had my 28 week appointment today and it went well. I didn't get a sonogram, but I did get to hear the heartbeat. Dr. H said that at 28 weeks the baby will most likely be more active than he will ever be. He said that Lane is taking full advantage of being able to move around because there is still room in my belly. He said as the weeks pass, he will slow down a little because he is getting cramped! That explains why I am able to see so much movement going on on the outside of my stomach! I go back in another month and then will start going every 2 weeks.

Here is a picture of me at exactly 29 weeks (taken a week after I posted this.)

finalist!!!!!!!!!

UPDATE:

Well, my photo didn't win first place, but Ree did award all of the other 9 finalists with a $100 gift card to B&H Photo!

Original Post:

Ahhhh! The Pioneer Woman chose my photo as one of the top 10 finalists!!! She is announcing the winner tomorrow...keep your fingers crossed for me! If I win I will definitely have to cut Paw a portion of my prize! Here is the link:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/2009/12/black-and-white-finalists/

Pioneer Woman Fame

Oh my goodness! I was so excited when I checked one of my favorite blogs today to see that my black and white picture of Paw made her page! I read The Pioneer Woman's blog daily and entered my picture into this contest about a week ago and then forgot all about it. When I checked out the photography section of her blog today my heart almost jumped out of my chest when I saw Paw's picture! She is choosing a couple of winners from all of the B&W's she posted to get a prize on Sunday. There were some other amazing pictures, so I am not holding my breath, but it is still so cool to see your name and photograph on a blog that THOUSANDS of people read! Here is the link to the page:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/2009/12/your-black-whites-part-2/

Paw said he is going to need a royalty on that picture and that he needs to start charging by the wrinkle. :)

I ♥ Faces - "Pets"

Yay! It's pets week at I ♥ Faces! Scout and I have had many little photo shoots, and while looking through photos of her, I kept coming back to this one. I caught her mid-bark and I love that her little ears were flopped up in the air. This photo really captures her feisty personality! Now go check out all the other precious animals at I ♥ Faces...

Belly Pics

Now that my belly has really started to show I thought I would post some pictures of the progression so far. My 8 week picture was really bad quality and I am kicking myself now for not taking a better one! After all, it will be a while until I look like that again!

Here is a picture of me at 24 weeks and 2 days.

And here is the progression from 12 weeks to 24. Baby boy is growing fast!

I ♥ Faces - "Sweet Dreams"

It's been a while since I've entered an I ♥ Faces contest, but this week I had a few cute pictures to choose from for the "Sweet Dreams" theme. I ended up choosing this picture of my friend's baby Nate when he was a newborn. This was taken in the hospital when he was just a few hours old. There is nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby!

Bedding Samples!!

Well, the baby bedding sample fabrics finally came in and we have pretty much made our decision!

Here is the polka dot fabric that first caught my eye. I just love the colors in it! The bumper will be patchwork with this fabric and the 2 different blue colors in solid minky fabric. The lady is going to embroider Lane's monogram in the middle of the bumper in chocolate brown. I can't wait to see the finished product!


Now we need to purchase the crib and changing table, and our rocking chair! Here is the crib I like best so far: